After the subsidy for chronic diseases and regular medicines was completely or partially lifted, the Lebanese started to panic as a result of chronic medicines’ prices that are skyrocketing, especially that every Lebanese family has at least one member who takes up medicines for pressure, diabetes, or other things. What is the alternative to paying 400 thousand Lebanese pounds, sometimes up to a million pounds, per month for those medications?

Lebanese-made drugs are an option.

Carole Abi Karam, President of the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Industries in Lebanon, joins us to discuss this subject further.

After meeting with the General Labor Union’s head, Bechara Al Asmar, Prime Minister Najib Mikati declared that he will meet with the Cabinet shortly to get things back on track.

“We entered into a very huge inflation as a result of the accumulation of years of subsidies,” he explained, “and frankly, our wishes today are to re-adopt the policy of subsidies, but we are unable to do so because we do not possess the necessary funds.”

Mikati stated that the registration of needy families will begin at the beginning of next month, adding that “these amounts are secured by the World Bank, and the procedure will be computerized, with no human participation, and we will not allow anyone benefiting from the card at the expense of another.” He explained that families living at an elevation of more than 700 meters will receive $190. He also stated that public-sector employees will receive half a bonus for the months of November and December.