Dr. Ali El-Ghamrawy, Chairman of the Egyptian Drug Authority, held a press conference today, Thursday, to clarify the efforts made by the authority to follow up on the availability of medicines during the past period to reach the availability of safe and effective medicines and control the markets.
He explained that the obstacles during the past period have been worked on. The availability is gradually being achieved under measures taken by the government and urgent decisions on all parties in the pharmaceutical market, which started with providing foreign currency to import raw materials, reconsidering the pricing of some important medicines after the liberalization of the exchange rate, taking into account the social aspect of citizens and paying attention to restoring production rates to their full capacity, and ensuring a fair price according to the government's commitment to the economic dimension of the pharmaceutical industry.
The most prominent obstacles faced during the past period were due to some practices related to supply and demand in the markets, such as the attempt by some to stockpile quantities over the actual need to create a parallel market for the circulation of medicines to create increased demand and reintroduce it at a higher price than the official drug prices, where these practices were controlled; in addition to the crisis in obtaining the foreign currency needed to import raw materials; which gradually affected the size of the strategic stock of several raw materials with high consumption rates, as well as the decline in import and production levels in the previous period for a specific number of several pharmaceutical products.
On the shortage of 81 medicines related to some diseases such as pressure and diabetes, and some groups of antibiotics, the Chairman of the Drug Authority said: Import quantities of these medicines have been increased, and the import period has been reduced by shifting various shipping methods to urgent air shipping, and direct communication with suppliers of active and inactive pharmaceutical raw materials to increase import rates for all raw materials involved in the production of local factories, pointing out that the Authority has provided all medicines for chronic diseases in ambulance pharmacies in all its branches and several major pharmacies in different governorates.
The Chairman of the Authority stressed that the increasing demand for some trade names for some common items contributed to creating increased demand, pointing out that the Authority pays great attention to following up on the provision of all pharmaceutical equivalents for these drug groups and educating citizens not to dispense quantities over their actual needs, so as not to reflect on some patients not receiving their actual needs.
Dr. Ali Al-Ghamrawi revealed that the pharmaceutical market is witnessing the gradual availability of all pharmaceutical items that have been frequently complained about, and these items will be available gradually over the next two months, explaining that the Authority has started in parallel to implement a comprehensive plan to provide a strategic reserve of pharmaceutical raw materials for chronic diseases medicines to increase their manufacturing rates.
He pointed out that the authority continues to launch intensive inspection campaigns on all pharmaceutical institutions to follow up on the availability of various items, explaining that the number of inspection visits carried out by the authority in the period from 1 January to 30 June 2024 reached about 55 thousand inspection visits, and the authority also supported direct communication with pharmacies to achieve effective community communication by reporting immediately through a link on the website in case of any challenges or refusal to supply pharmaceuticals from distributors to pharmacies, as well as for citizens through the hotline service or availability that directs the patient to the nearest place to dispense his medicine in an orderly manner
The Chairman of the Egyptian Medicines Authority added that the authority is working with industry partners and other governmental organizations concerned with pharmaceutical affairs to take all measures that enable the non-recurrence of any shortage of medicines, after providing raw materials and returning production rates to normal levels, while working to secure strategic reserves of some items that are monitored, up to six months to face any future challenges.
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