Egypt’s PM directs government to solve crisis of medicine shortage in local markets

CAIRO – 14 July 2024: Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli directed the government to solve the problem of medicine shortage that the country is going through.

The Prime Minister’s directives were given during a meeting with his deputy for human development and Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar and Chairman of the Egyptian Medicines Authority Ali Al-Ghamrawi.
 

Mostafa Madbouly, Prime Minister, held a meeting today, to follow up on efforts to provide medicines and deal with the problem of shortages, in the presence of Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Deputy Prime Minister for Human Development, Minister of Health and Population, and Dr. Ali Al-Ghamrawi, Chairman of the Egyptian Medicines Authority.

The Cabinet has received a number of complaints in this regard, according to a statement released by the cabinet on Sunday. “We must work to solve these problems and coordinate with pharmaceutical companies to double production. We are ready to support any steps in this file,” said Madbouli.

During the meeting, the Minister of Health and Population explained that the crisis was caused by the lack of dollar liquidity during the last period, saying this hard currency shortage has affected the production of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, and then the availability of medicines in the markets.

Abdel-Ghaffar stressed that the crisis began to ease with the availability of dollar liquidity, so the problem will end during the coming weeks.

For his part, the head of the Drug Authority gave a detailed presentation that covered the Authority’s efforts to provide medicines on the market, according to the required priorities. He also discussed the authority’s the steps to work on making a strategic stock of medicines and preparations available for various uses.

He also touched on the mechanisms for monitoring the stock of medicines, controlling the various supply and distribution chains, and the efforts that have been done to push production in the pharmaceutical sector to meet local needs.