84,000 inspections of Egyptian pharmacies conducted this year

CAIRO – 17 December 2017: Director of the Health Ministry's Pharmaceutical Inspection Department Moustafa Al Sayed said that 84,000 inspections of pharmacies have taken place from January through October of this year, in an attempt to combat black market activities.

Al Sayed added that the department has prepared different committees in cooperation with the Ministry of Supply to control those who phase out and monopolize medicines.

After witnessing shortages in penicillin in the recent period, the department monitors the distribution of penicillin daily from Egyptian pharmaceutical trading companies to markets, he said. Al Sayed also referred to a recent report that revealed a penicillin surplus in many pharmacies, which means the recent crisis has been resolving.

He noted that the penicillin shortage is mainly occurring in private pharmacies and will be resolved, indicating that the Ministry of Health provided drugs to pharmacies affiliated only to the Egyptian pharmaceutical trading company to prevent a black market monopoly.

Around 200,000 packets of penicillin will be pumped into the market next Sunday, according to Rasha Ziadeh, head of the Central Administration of Pharmacy Affairs at the Ministry of Health on December 15.

Ziadeh asserted that the Ministry of Health will conduct regular inspections of pharmacies across Egypt on a daily basis and assures that they have an adequate balance of medicines for all patients.