Cairo – August 12, 2024: Prices of certain medicines are expected to climb as between 80-100 companies have applied to the Egyptian Drugs Authority (EDA) to up medicine prices by an average of 25-30 percent.
Head of the Pharmaceuticals Division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Ali Ouf, explained that companies applied to increase the prices of antibiotics, as well as medicines for chronic diseases, diarrhea, and allergies.
The price of medicine for chronic diseases jumped by 20-25 percent in June after the drug authority approved requests from the industry, additionally allowing an increase of 50 percent for vitamins and nutritional supplement medications.
Egypt’s current drug shortage has improved in the past three weeks, Ouf explained to Ahram Online, and is expected to be solved in the next two months.
Around 800 types of medicines are not available in the local market today, he added.
The government assigned LE 7 billion to address the shortage of medicines and medical supplies during a meeting on Friday. The meeting reviewed a series of measures to be implemented to ensure availability of medicines and pharmaceutical products in the Egyptian market.
The LE 7 billion will be allocated towards manufacturing input needs to bolster production, raw materials, and factory development.
In July, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stressed that the government must coordinate with pharmaceutical companies to double production to improve the situation, with the government ready to step in to support any measures needed.
The shortage was triggered by the foreign currency shortage during the past two years, explained Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar during the July meeting with Madbouly.
He added that the lack of foreign currency impacted the production of pharmaceutical manufacturing companies, causing the reduced availability of medicines in the markets.
In the first five months of 2024, Egypt's pharmaceutical market saw sales value soar to approximately LE 73.3 billion, a significant increase from LE 51 billion during the same period in 2023, according to a recent report by IQVIA, a leading organization in pharmaceutical market analysis.
Egypt’s Information and Decision Support Center recently reported that the country’s pharmaceutical sector is one of the largest in Africa, with annual sales reaching approximately $7 billion.
The shortage of verified medicines has led some Egyptians to seek black-market alternatives, including unapproved versions of essential drugs like insulin, thyroid treatments, and blood pressure medications. These unofficial products, which may be expired or altered, present a serious health hazard to consumers.
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