A number of pharmaceutical companies have stopped the production of several varieties of drugs due to the high cost of production prices compared to the drugs’ selling prices on market, said former President of the Pharmaceuticals Export Council Awad Gabr.
Awad added in a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm that over 700 drugs, mostly used by low-income people, are no longer on the market.
The production of Egyptian companies covers about 90 percent of the needs of the local market, said Awad, adding that the proportion of imported drugs currently amounted to about 10 percent of the drugs on the market and before it was only 7 percent.
The import ratio rose after some local companies stopped producing certain medicines, Awad said, noting that the public sector companies continue to produce similar medicines despite making losses equal to LE200 million last year.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm