Egyptian authorities are moving to raise the prices of some kinds of medicines in order to avoid government pharmaceutical companies making huge losses, the head of the state-owned Holding Company for Medicines said.
According to Egyptian news site Almesryoon, the remarks made by Adel Abdel-Alim, the head of the government-owned company, came after a meeting of the Health Affairs Committee which discussed raising the prices of some medicines.
He noted that the committee called for the authorities to reform the financial framework of the state’s pharmaceutical companies in order to be able to achieve profits, saying that this would be achieved by increasing prices.
Abdel-Alim said that losses suffered accumulated because state legislation does not allow them to invest in other sectors, adding that the debts incurred by some of these companies now reaching billions of Egyptian pounds.
Earlier, health minister Ahmed Emad Eldin tasked a committee in his ministry to study the rise of medicine prices that are less than 10 Egyptian pounds in order to afford a level of profit for pharmaceutical firms.
A leader in a pharmacists’ union, Mohyi Obeid, said that Egypt is planning to raise prices because pharmaceutical companies import crude material from abroad, noting that the floating of the Egyptian pound caused a huge increase in import prices.
He said that some of the companies stopped producing many of the medicines. He also said that all Egyptian baby formula is currently imported from abroad.
A member of the Chamber of Medicine Producers, Ali Ouf, said that 90 medicine factories were currently making losses, and stressed that it was important to be able to find a balance whereby medicines are affordable and the pharmaceutical industry was supported.