Ahmed Murad (Beirut, Cairo)
The medicine market in Lebanon is witnessing a state of turmoil, amid the worsening crisis of the disappearance of many types of medicines, especially medicines for treating chronic and incurable diseases, which has led to the emergence of a black market for selling medicines at very high prices, in addition to the emergence of alternative medicines of lower quality and price.
According to data issued by the Lebanese Pharmacists Syndicate, the percentage of smuggled medicines invading the markets reached about 50% of the total local drug consumption.
The Lebanese economic expert, Khaled Abu Shaqra, explained that Lebanon is suffering from the emergence of black markets for medicines, especially those used in treating chronic and incurable diseases, such as medicines for cancer, heart, nerves, kidneys, and others, noting that some of these important medicines are supported by the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Abu Shakra said, in a statement to Al-Ittihad: The Lebanese government supports medicines for chronic and incurable diseases because of their high cost. For example, the price of cancer medicines may reach more than 3 thousand dollars per month, which exceeds the purchasing power of the majority of the people, but at the same time Patients also suffer from the lack of availability of them in the official market, which prompts many of them, especially those who are affluent, to buy medicines from the black market at high and exaggerated prices, and the matter depends on the extent of the shortage of medicine in the official market and the financial situation of the patient.
The insane rise in drug prices forces many patients to use alternative medicines that are lower in price and quality, as they do not meet international safety standards, causing the health condition of thousands of patients to deteriorate.
In turn, the Lebanese analyst and writer, Basil Al-Khatib, explained that the intertwined crises that Lebanon is suffering from, politically and economically, have produced many serious repercussions in various sectors, including the pharmaceutical sector, which faces many complex challenges, including hiding some types of medicines for the purpose of monopolizing them and selling them on the market. Black medicines at high prices, and the emergence of cheap, lower-quality alternatives, which the patient resorts to due to the financial crisis that the majority of Lebanese are suffering from.
Al-Khatib said, in a statement to Al-Ittihad, that with the outbreak of the financial crisis in Lebanon in 2019 and its repercussions worsening in subsequent years, unknown brands and goods appeared in the market, as a cheap alternative to products that the Lebanese were no longer able to afford due to the decline in purchasing power and the decline in… Salaries, in the public and private sectors, and the same applies to the pharmaceutical market.
Al-Khatib denounced what is happening in the Lebanese pharmaceutical sector, and said that this matter cannot be accepted with regard to medicines and the health of patients, and therefore state institutions must intensify their efforts in order to monitor the medicine market and eliminate the black market, especially since the matter relates to the health and lives of millions of Lebanese.
#Lebanon. #black #market #medicines #exacerbates #patients #pain