There is a deficiency of over 100 vital medications in the Egyptian market, for most of which no alternatives exist, said the Egyptian Pharmacists Syndicate on Sunday. The list includes anti-allergy drugs, anti-hypertensive drugs, antibiotics and children’s medication.
The syndicate said it would send a memorandum to parliament with the list of scarce medications attached, in order to counter the Health Ministry’s claims that it has provided them to pharmacies nationwide.
Pharmacists Syndicate Assistant Secretary General Saifullah Imam told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the syndicate has yet to send the memorandum because it has not received a response to a previous list of missing medications sent a while ago.
Imam said that if the ministry fails to provide the medications, the syndicate will ask pharmacists to direct ill people to parliament to express their suffering from the shortages.
He went on to describe the ministry’s policies towards the pharmaceutical industry as “unwise.” He criticized the industry’s boasts of closing production lines, which may indeed be the main reason behind the shortage.
Imam called on the ministry to assist pharmaceutical companies in the management and development of production lines, and to end its police-like behavior towards them.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
