Secretary of Pharmacists Syndicate Mustafa Al Wakeel blamed the Egyptian government for the current drug crisis and the notable increase in their prices. He added that the recent decisions taken by the government came in response to the major companies that work to increase their gains at the expense of the citizens.

He added, “The drugs companies managed to achieve profits transcending 2000 percent during the recent months after the minister’s approval of their requests.” He called the Egyptian government for establishing an independent authority to manage the drugs issue to be led by a pharmacist. He added that the health minister is not qualified for managing the issue, as he is not a pharmacist.

He added, in an interview with “Arabs Today”, that the syndicate demanded the government to hire a deputy for the health minister for the drugs affairs to pave the way for limiting the current stochastic approach adopted by the minister in this critical issue. He stressed the need for not giving the priority to the interests of drug companies at the expense of citizens.

He accused the health minister of destroying the drug industry in Egypt, saying, “We were exporting to all over the world, while other countries managed to replace Egypt in the international drug market, including Jordan which its volume of medicine exports reached $ seven billion per year.

He added that the syndicate submitted a proposal to the government to increase the prices of a limited number of medicines, while it turned to take the same actions with over 600 kinds of drugs, criticizing the recent statement of Egypt’s health minister that the number of missing drugs in the market is only 200 species. He said that it is not the real number.