Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting
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Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

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.



Riyadh Air Willing to Buy Boeing Planes from Cancelled Chinese Orders

Riyadh Air aircraft. (SPA)
Riyadh Air aircraft. (SPA)
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Riyadh Air Willing to Buy Boeing Planes from Cancelled Chinese Orders

Riyadh Air aircraft. (SPA)
Riyadh Air aircraft. (SPA)

Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas on Monday said that the Saudi startup carrier would be ready to buy Boeing aircraft destined for Chinese airlines if they are not delivered due to the escalating trade war between the United States and China.

Boeing is looking to resell potentially dozens of planes locked out of China by tariffs after repatriating a third jet to the United States in a delivery standoff that drew new criticism of Beijing from US President Donald Trump.

"What we've done... is made it quite clear to Boeing, should that ever happen, and the keyword there is should, we'll happily take them all," Douglas said in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market conference.

Boeing took the rare step of publicly flagging the potential aircraft sale during an analyst call last week, saying that there would be no shortage of buyers in a tight jet market.