The order of pharmacists has announced the holding of an indefinite strike until their pharmacies are protected and the Ministry of Health approves the new fee schedule.
They indicate that they have been obliged to achieve this measure following the assaults to which they have been victims in recent days due to drug shortages.
Interior Ministry and security forces are supposed to protect citizens
The organization also accuses the Ministry of Health of not having respected its commitments allowing the establishment of a list of subsidized drugs which would thus be made available by financing from the Banque du Liban.
As a reminder, a standoff between the Ministry of Health, drug importers and Banque du Liban is currently taking place. The Banque du Liban indicated that it could not grant the necessary credit lines for imports due to a significant increase in the sums mentioned since last year. As for the importers of drugs, they believe that the payment of these funds is necessary.
Commenting the press release from the Banque du Liban which estimated that importers of medicines had already far exceeded the level of 2020 orders by mid-2021 and consequently refusing to grant the more than 400 million dollars of lines of credit necessary to finance the purchases of this sector, the outgoing Minister of Health Hassan Hamad accuses the central bank of having published unbalanced information, noting that the period of 2020 cannot be compared to 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.
We have to be objective in stress testing, and this is not how society and the Department of Public Health are rewarded under the current circumstances
Hamad Hassan, July 15, 2021
As a reminder, the central bank indicated yesterday that it had already paid $ 536 million for importing drugs as of June 30, 2021, while the value submitted for prior approval was estimated at $ 445 million. The total import bill would therefore reach $ 1.5 billion on that date, while the Banque du Liban would have financed $ 1,173 million in drugs in 2020. Consequently, the BdL would not have settled a balance of 445 million dollars until today.
