[ad_1]
So far, no definitive rationing mechanism has been agreed, confirms Karim Jabara, head of the Union of Drug Importers. In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, he explained that the committee dedicated to examining this file, which is made up of sectors that operate in medicine, the Ministry of Health, the Prime Minister and the Bank of Lebanon, continues to discuss the best mechanism, in based on two criteria: Reduce the pressure on the BDL reserves of foreign currencies, and maintaining the level of the health sector, which is located in advanced world ranges.
It should be noted that after the increase in the price of the dollar on the black market (currently in the range of 8 thousand) in Lebanon, it has become difficult to insure the dollar at the official exchange rate, that is, 1515 Lebanese pounds, so the Central Bank of Lebanon insures 85 percent of the drug import bill based on the official price of its reserves. In foreign currency, as long as the importer secures 15 percent of the market, but with the bank’s foreign exchange reserves decreasing, it announced that it will stop subsidizing all the basic materials that it supports based on the official price (fuel, wheat and medicines. ), in addition to a food basket launched by the Ministry of Economy and endorsed by it. The bank is based on the rate of $ 3,900. The bill for importing medicines in Lebanon is 1,740 million dollars a year, while the value of what it exports does not exceed 38 million dollars.
Among the rationalization mechanisms being discussed is that the drug subsidy is based on an average exchange rate between the black market and the official price, which is 3,900 pounds, instead of the official price of 1,515 pounds per dollar, or the adoption of subsidizing only a specific part of the drug and ceasing to support another part, allowing Continuous Support for a longer period of up to 7 or 8 months. According to the opinion of the head of the Parliamentary Health Commission, Representative Assem Araji.
Araji told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the proposal to streamline support for medicines, and in the event that support for a certain number of medicines is approved, is based on the criterion of necessity, which means that you are will ask the Ministry of Health to draw up a list defining the essential drugs (vital and essential drugs) to continue its support. Only while the support with the rest of the drugs ceases, it is assumed that the list of drugs that will continue to be supported includes what is used in intensive care rooms, and medications for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stress and nervous system.
But adopting this mechanism by rationalizing medicine is “very difficult,” according to Jabara, explaining that it is “difficult for doctors to unanimously agree on what is essential in medicine or not, unless the World Organization list is approved. of Health in this context, which was developed for poor countries “. Less possible for citizens. “
Jabara explains that if this regulation is passed, the support will not include many treatments for serious illnesses. For example, breast cancer, which reveals that the committee is working hard to find solutions and will soon present recommendations.
Araji believes that there is currently no solution except rationalization, while working at the same time to support the local industry, as there are 11 pharmaceutical factories in Lebanon that can secure 41 percent of the market needs, and this requires a plan. to increase national drug production by providing state incentives to the manufacturer. It is exempt from additional taxes and subsidy on raw materials. In theory, local drug production could meet the needs of the Lebanese market or most of it, but the matter without it many obstacles, according to the head of the National Health Authority, Dr. Ismail Sukkariyah, the first of the which is what he calls the “drug cartel”, because “more than half of the medicine in Lebanon is monopolized by 5 large companies, and more than 30% of the small ones, while the Lebanese industry does not acquire more 15%, and this “cartel makes huge profits that will not be easily dispensed with.”
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Sukkariyeh explains that most countries have reduced their drug bills by adopting ginric (an alternative that is usually cheaper), as it represents 90 percent of the pharmaceutical market in the United States. and 80 percent in European countries, while it remains a motto in Lebanon, as there are only 850 generics out of 6,000 drugs on the Lebanese market.
In this context, Sukariya points out that some pharmaceutical companies, in order to make more profits, registered 2,700 drugs without entering the market. They bought the license without making use of it so as not to allow other companies to introduce cheaper drugs, adding that “one of the wonders of Lebanon is also that the price of generics is more than the price of basic drugs, and this is found in Lebanon in dozens of drugs.
