Parliamentary sources said that the government plans to increase the prices of medication in production, while maintaining the current prices of medicine products already in stores and pharmacies.
They told Daily News Egypt that the government has approved the request of the parliament’s Health Committee to limit the increase in medicine prices to those in production only and that members of parliament called on Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din on Monday to implement the decision.
They explained that applying the new price increase on existing products in the market will allow many companies and pharmacies to store medication at this time, which will cause a shortage and affect citizens.
The committee halted the decision to increase the prices of domestic medicines by 15% and imported medicines by 20% every six months.
Daily News Egypt revealed that the government plans to increase the budget of EGP 3.5bn currently allocated to treatment at the expense of the state by EGP 5bn in preparation for the price increase.
Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din presented a proposal to the cabinet to increase the prices of 15% of domestic medicines that currently cost between EGP 1 and EGP 50 by 50%, and medicines that cost between EGP 50 and EGP 100 by 40%, while medicines that are priced at over EGP 100 by 30%.
