A Twitter Pharmacy to tackle the medicine crisis in Egypt

CAIRO – 26 February 2017: An Egyptian accountant has launched the Twitter Pharmacy (Saydalyet Twitter) project, to help combat the drug shortage and the growing medicine black market in Egypt which has been exacerbated by the currency devaluation.

Through the Twitter handle launched in October 2016, patients can tweet the names of the drugs they need, and they are directed to pharmacies where they are available or individuals willing to sell or donate the drug.

According to Al-Monitor, the project was founded by Khaled Omar, an Egyptian accountant, who collaborated with pharmacists and assistants to provide information on where certain medicine can be found, as well as to encourage people to donate drugs through the internet.

"I found that coming up with an out-of-the-box solution to the medicine crisis in Egypt was something very important to many patients," Omar said, according to Al-Monitor.

The Twitter Pharmacy has also expanded to Facebook and WhatsApp.

A drug shortage crisis started in Egypt in early 2016 with a severe dollar shortage in the foreign exchange market and intensified following the decision to float the Egyptian Pound in November.

To deal with the financial problems facing pharmaceutical companies, the Ministry of Health had allowed a 20% price rise for drugs costing up to 30 EGP per pack, effective July 2016. The Minister later approved another price rise of 15% for local drugs and 20% for exported ones, to apply to 3,000 drugs in January 2017.