A number of Lebanese have complained of the exhaustion of certain medicines, including medications for chronic diseases. This caused panic and fear, especially in a country where the interruption or loss of any basic commodity or service such as bread, diesel, and electricity has become natural and possible at any moment.
The head of the Pharmacists Syndicate, Ghassan al-Amin said that Lebanon was not heading towards a drug crisis.
“The availability of medicines is linked to continuous subsidies,” he affirmed.
Amin explained that some drugs were sometimes unavailable for 10-15 days, because of the mechanism adopted by the Lebanese Central Bank in opening credit lines for importers.
Another reason that contributed to the recent exhaustion of drugs is because “some citizens are stocking medicine in their homes. This has “significantly increased drug consumption and contributed to its depletion from pharmacies,” according to Amin.
Smuggling is another contributor, the head of the Syndicate said, expressing his fears that this phenomenon would worsen with the deterioration of the value of the local currency against the USD in the parallel market.
Responding to fears over the rise of prices, Amin stressed that all medicines were subsidized, noting that prices would not rise but they might decrease.
The increase in prices was only seen in nutritional supplements and some products that are sold in pharmacies and are not classified as medicines, he noted.
Amin revealed that there are around 200 pharmacies that have recently closed and expected the number to reach 1,000 out of 3,000 within a year, because most pharmacy owners were unable to sustain further losses.
