Cairo: Since November, Abdul Fattah Mahmoud has faced a virtually life-threatening problem. His wife, who has liver cirrhosis, needs four packets of an imported drug every month. Mahmoud, an 82-year-old pensioner, has often been told that the drug is in short supply.
“The price of the packet has increased from 100 pounds (Dh20.8) to 130 pounds. Even though, I cannot find it easily at pharmacies,” Mahmoud, an ex-school inspector, told Gulf News.
Egypt has seen shortages of pharmaceuticals since November when the government free-floated the local pound as part of tough measures to reform the ailing economy.
The step has triggered hikes in prices of different goods, including mostly imported medicines.
“Although the four packets cost 520 pounds every month, I can afford it with my pension of 3,200 pounds. Thank God, I have no children; otherwise supporting them would have been a difficult mission in this hard time.”
In response to advice from friends, Mahmoud has sought help from a charity clinic affiliated to a local mosque.
“The clinic has a pharmacy. Both serve people for nominal prices and even free of charge for the poor,” he said. “The services depend on donations of money and medicines from kind-hearted people.”
Mahmoud goes to the charity in his neighbourhood in northern Cairo when he fails to find the drug for his wife at pharmacies.
“I often get the packets after I show them the prescription and pay the price. I haven’t asked to get the medicine for free because I can afford it. There are other millions, who are sick, but don’t have the money to be treated,” he added satisfactorily.
Charity clinics have long been in service in Egypt, mainly in working-class areas. They are manned by medical volunteers and funded by donations from individuals.
As the shortages and high prices of medicines have hit, increasing numbers of Egyptians have developed the habit of donating pharmaceutical products they no longer need or left behind by dead relatives to such charities.
The trend has gone online too. Several online campaigns have been launched in the past months aimed at helping those in need of life-saving medicines. The most popular drive is the hashtag #Twitter_Pharmac created in late 2016.
“The aim of the account is to help those who are unable to buy or find medicines due to their high prices or shortages,” the founder of Twitter_Pharmac Khaled Omar, said.
“The hashtag also encourages those who have medicines but no longer need them to donate them,” Omar, an accountant, told private television station Al Asaema.
“Originally, the idea was to help those who could not buy medicines. But soon the matter has turned into assisting those who have money, but cannot find the prescribed medication.”
The 35-year-old campaigner said his charitable service is not involved in buying or selling pharmaceuticals because this is illegal.
“Those who want to donate money to the poor patients, we ask them to offer their donations directly to charitable associations that care for patients.”
Encouraged by the effort, some medical professionals have joined Twitter_Pharmac, offering information about where certain medicines can be found. Non-specialised visitors retweet the desperate pleas for obtaining medicines.
Earlier this month, the Egyptian Ministry of Health said that 42 drugs have disappeared off shelves of pharmacies.
In January, the ministry agreed to raise prices of 3,000 from 12,000 medicines traded in the country. The price hikes, capping marathon negotiations with drug suppliers, ranged from 12 per cent for locally manufactured medicines and 20 per cent for the imported ones.
The government sets drug prices in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with 92 million people.
A health official said the pharmaceuticals still in short supply are used in treating diabetes, liver and haemophilia as well as antibiotics and contraceptives.
“The shortages are due to illegal practices of unscrupulous people who stock up on huge quantities of medicines in order to sell them on the black market and make big gains,” said Rasha Zeyda, the head of the pharmaceutical department at the Health Ministry.
She added that in recent weeks health inspectors and police have seized illegally stored drugs in raids. “Talk about shortages in medicines has prompted some people to hoard them in order to hike up their prices,” Zeyda added in a press statement.
“The illegal storing activities have gone beyond pharmacies and spread to apartments that have been turned into warehouses.”
Around 95 components of drugs used in Egypt are imported, a matter that makes their prices largely affected by volatility in the Egyptian pound exchange rates. Since the November float, the pound has weakened by two times against the dollar.
The government has recently formed a committee tasked with revamping the country’s medical system, including boost of the drug industry with the aim of covering local needs.
The parliament, meanwhile, unveiled a draft bill punishing pharmaceutical monopoly and manipulation of prices by a maximum three years in prison and a fine of up to LE1 million.
Some Egyptians do not expect the situation to improve any time soon, though.
One of them is Hameeda Mousa, a housewife.
“Even if medicines are available, we can’t buy them because of their high prices,” the 59-year-old mother of six told this paper.
“Will we buy food or medicines? Since prices of medicines have soared to the sky, I have turned my attention to [medical] herbs as an alternative. They are effective in cases like colic, diarrhoea and even knee pains. They are also affordable,” said Mousa, who is a widow.
In February, annual inflation in Egypt jumped to a record 31.7 per cent, the country’s highest in more than three decades, according to the state statistics agency.
In an attempt to help their patients, several Egyptian doctors have said they are keen to proscribe low-priced drug alternatives to imported brands.
Hany Sabry, a diabetic, believes that the approach has not significantly eased the problem.
“Those doctors deserve thanks because they are aware of people’s health and financial woes. But based on my experience in the past months, alternative medicines are not always low-priced, effective or available,” the 36-year-old taxi driver, said.
“In several cases, the black market is the last resort that costs a lot of money.”
