The Pharmacy Owners Committee announced, in a statement, in coordination with the Pharmacists Syndicate, Dr. Joe Salloum, that “as usual, and with every rise in the dollar exchange rate, drug importers stop delivering pharmacies their daily needs of medicines in light of the Ministry of Health’s refusal to issue a new price index that mimics the reality of the market.”

She stressed that “all that concerns us is the continuation of providing our pharmacies with medicines so that we can carry out our duty towards patients, as most importers have stopped delivering medicines to pharmacies more than 5 days ago, and throughout this time pharmacists continued to deliver their medicines to patients as usual, but this matter cannot continue.” After importers announced that they would not resume delivery of medicines before the issuance of a new price index from the Ministry of Health.

The committee called on pharmacists to “close pharmacies on Tuesday 05/24/2022 until two o’clock in the afternoon and sit in front of the Ministry of Health at nine thirty in the morning to demand an end to the indiscriminate smuggling of medicines without any oversight from the Ministry of Health, which may include counterfeit, expired or ineffective medicines as a result of Because of their poor storage and transportation, which poses a great danger to the health of citizens, knowing that most of the smuggled medicines have alternatives manufactured locally and of high quality and under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.”

It also called on the Minister of Public Health to “establish a weekly index for the drug to ensure that it will continue to be distributed to pharmacies without interruption, so that the loss of medicines will not be repeated at every exchange rate change.”