After fuel… Egypt is preparing to increase drug prices

The head of the Pharmaceuticals Division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce in Egypt, Ali Aouf, said that the Egyptian Pharmaceutical Authority gave pharmaceutical companies two weeks to submit requests to raise drug prices, after the Central Bank of Egypt’s decision to liberalize the exchange rate at the beginning of this month.

Auf explained to Al Arabiya Business that the deadline set by the Drug Authority began on March 12 and ends on the 26th of the same month, followed by the Authority beginning to examine and study the applications submitted to determine the preparations that will be approved for increase, and determine the increase rates.

“The Medicine Authority needs a month to study the requests submitted by the companies, and the Authority’s pharmaceutical pricing committees need two months to approve the increase, which means that the matter will take approximately 4 months from the date of the official increase in the price of the dollar… This period is very long and the companies will not be able to bear it,” according to the head of the division.

“Pharmaceuticals Division”: 60% of the preparations achieve losses

He added: “The situation of Egyptian pharmaceutical companies is very difficult, and some of them will be at risk of bankruptcy if the state does not intervene to stop their losses, especially since 60% of the preparations that companies currently produce are sold at prices lower than their actual cost.”

Medicine is one of the compulsory priced commodities in Egypt, like petroleum products and bread. The state took a decision to increase the prices of the former, last Friday, by one pound for gasoline and 1.75 pounds for diesel, while keeping the price of subsidized bread at 5 piasters without change.

Support the dollar price difference

Auf said that pharmaceutical companies need the Egyptian Medicine Authority to approve urgent increases in drug prices without any delay, noting that delaying the decision to move prices requires the Egyptian state to intervene and support the dollar price difference in banks, so that companies deal when importing raw materials at the exchange rate before the latest measures. (31 pounds), until the price increase is approved.