Sudan freezes medicine imports, replaces with local alternatives

The Sudanese government announced yesterday that the import of medicine will be gradually frozen so that local alternatives can be used in their place, Anadolu reported.

According to the official Sudanese news agency Sudanese Health Minister Bahar Idriss Abu Garda met with a committee of medicine manufacturers and said that this decision had been made by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.

Director General of the National Council of Medicines and Poisons Zine El-Abidine Abbas Al-Fahal said that this decision would contribute towards supporting and developing the national industry, saving foreign currency and helping the country afford enough medicine to stock all pharmacies.

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Chairman of the Chamber of Medicine Manufacturers Ahmed Al-Badawi said that the national medicine industry consists of 27 factories.

Annual Sudanese imports of medicines are worth $200 million. The national medicine industry covers only 40 per cent of the local market’s needs.

Sudan has been suffering a deficit in its foreign currency since 2011 when it lost 75 per cent of its national income from the oil industry after South Sudan seceded from Sudan.

Medicine importers often make purchases from the black market.