2023-07-24 13:30:00
Since some pharmacies started manipulating the prices of medicines and selling them at a price higher than the medicine price index issued by the Ministry of Health, the health battle began to take a different turn.
The health of the citizen has been transformed by the economic crisis into a commercial commodity that generates money without accountability or supervision. The Ministry of Health, along with the Pharmacists Syndicate, strikes a blow and then disappears again, so the violators frolic in the chaos and threaten the health of the citizen who groans to find medicine.
Illegal pharmacies and dispensaries have spread like mushrooms. The economic crisis and the absence of oversight formed a suitable soil for their emergence and spread in various regions. And since official statistics and figures are absent, there are no accurate figures on the number of illegal pharmacies and dispensaries in Lebanon, and what those concerned know is that they exist and that their danger is great.
In May, the Ministry of Health closed a pharmacy in the Baouchriyeh real estate area – Matn district, with red wax, pursuant to Resolution No. 23/1/282 issued by the Minister of Public Health, after it was proven that the pharmacist had committed many professional and behavioral violations, the most prominent of which was manipulating the prices of medicines and selling them at a price higher than the drug price index issued by the Ministry of Public Health.
The Ministry of Health confirmed that any pharmacy that does not adhere to the prices issued by it and manipulates the prices of medicines will be subject to legal prosecution and the most severe penalties will be implemented against them.
We hear from time to time about referring a pharmacy to the disciplinary council, and we also hear about the different prices for the same medicine between pharmacies, but who monitors a citizen’s health and how can he know that he is buying from a reliable and legitimate pharmacy?
The pharmacists’ captain, Joe Salloum, confirmed in his interview with “An-Nahar” that “our authority is limited to legitimate pharmacies, while following up on illegal pharmacies and dispensaries is the responsibility and tasks of the Ministry of Health. However, we pledge as a syndicate to continue to inspect pharmacies periodically, and we have referred 30 to 35 pharmacies to the disciplinary council because they were selling illegal drugs under the pretext of securing medicines for patients or not complying with the official price of the drug.”
Salloum does not justify any “step or pretext for securing a pharmacy for illegal medicines for the patient, and for us, if the medicine is cut off, the patient must secure it from abroad and in his own way, because securing the medicine through merchants raises the risk that it is counterfeit.”
3400 legitimate pharmacies compared to an unknown number for the number of illegal pharmacies and dispensaries. In the opinion of the Pharmacists Syndicate, “The battle started inside the house, where we went to all the violating pharmacies and took the necessary measures against them. They were referred to the disciplinary council, and we have no authority over illegal clinics and pharmacies.”
He added, “Tomorrow, a campaign to adhere to the official pricing and legal medicine will be launched through a sticker placed on every pharmacy, with a commitment from the pharmacy to dispense the legal medicine and the official price issued by the Ministry of Health.” Salloum hopes, “The concerned authorities will take the necessary steps against pharmacies, dispensaries, and illegal shops that are everywhere, because they endanger the citizen’s health.”
Regarding the reasons for the spread of these illegal pharmacies and dispensaries in such a large number recently, the head of the “Health is Right and Dignity” campaign, Dr. Ismail Soukariyeh, believes that “the chaos in the prices of medicines and the quality of medicine in the absence of a central laboratory and the absence of oversight leads to the spread of this phenomenon like mushrooms. We are talking about a purely commercial issue that generates money for its owners.”
Sukkariyeh does not hide that this phenomenon existed in the past, but today it has greatly exacerbated as a result of the crisis, chaos, and the absence of absolute oversight.
Many files and lawsuits are still pending without a judgment or judicial decision being issued, and this is what reinforces the chaos in sectors, including the health sector, where all complaints remain in the drawers and no judgment has been issued in some cases, the most important of which, according to Sukaria, is “the taxotere cancer file submitted since 2007 and no judgment has yet been issued in it, and in 2008 the case of Indian medicines and Mona Baalbaki was referred to inspection and nothing has been issued so far, and other health files.”
The list goes on without touching on the ground any accountability on the ground, and Sukkarieh believes that “when I went forward and raised my voice without moving any inhabitant or the occurrence of reactions from a political, partisan, religious or official side, it is not surprising that we reach this reality and the recurrence of these incidents. False parties raise slogans and nothing on the ground, the state is a failure and the parliament is a false witness to health issues.”
But what about the dangers of these illegal pharmacies? Sukkariyeh admits that its danger is great, “because first, we do not know the identity of the person who runs the pharmacy. Second, the medicines in these pharmacies do not know their quality and quality, and some of them are not officially registered with the Ministry of Health. Third, even medicines registered in the absence of a central laboratory pose a threat to the citizen’s health. Therefore, their dangers are clear, and we hear from time to time about complications or effects for a patient, in addition to the decline in the effectiveness of these medicines and sometimes they cause reactions.”
Faced with this reality, “we need, as Sukkarieh says, a major national decision that does not exist, and in light of this system and this political climate, it is impossible to change this reality.”
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