CAIRO: The Pharmacists' Syndicate is threatening to go on strike to express its discontent with two decrees if "friendly talks with the ministry prove unsuccessful, said Syndicate Board member Ahmed Ramy. Ramy told Daily News Egypt that the Syndicate called for an "emergency meeting of its high board on Friday where around 3,000 pharmacists met to discuss the actions to be taken against the Ministry of Health. The two contentious decrees were passed by the Ministry of Health on Dec. 31, 2007. The first - No. 542/207, 2007 - stipulates that any pharmacy selling medical and/or beauty products that are not certified by the Ministry of Health will be subject to a LE 50,000 fine or a one-year closure, said Ramy. The other stipulates that 102 medicines available in pharmacies also become available under the ministry's public medical insurance system at a very low cost, Ramy explained. Closing a pharmacy for one year is "a strong punishment, Ramy said because according to the law, any pharmacy that is closed for a year or more loses its license and cannot reopen. At the same time, continued Ramy, "around 90 percent of the medical drugs, medical and beauty products distributed in Egypt's pharmacies - which total around 35,000 - are not certified by the Ministry of Health. Ramy lays the blame squarely at the feet of the Health Ministry because it does not have an active system of registering medical and beauty products. Regarding medication, the law stipulates that medical drugs are not allowed to be registered anywhere worldwide until after a certain number of years - set by the mother company - of distributing it in its home country, Ramy explained. "The complicated registration procedures [for medicine] set by the Ministry of Health only makes matters worse, Ramy said. "The Minister of Health promised to revise Article 542. He even took out a bottle of medicine from his pocket during one of the meetings and said that he has been using it for a while even though he knows it is not certified by the ministry. On the other hand, Dr Abdel Rahman Shahin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, told Daily News Egypt that the Health Minister Dr Hatem El-Gabaly has called for a meeting with the members of the Pharmacists' Syndicate in which the minister discussed the means by which the conflict between the ministry and the Syndicate can be resolved. In this meeting, according to Dr Shahin, the minister of health came up with a resolution to "appease the Pharmacists' Syndicate suggesting that the ministry make a list of all the medical and beauty products that are sold without a license and give the pharmacies a one-year grace period to acquire their licenses, but the Syndicate rejected the proposal. According to Shahin their excuse is not valid because the procedures to acquire the license of any medical drug or beauty product are not "complicated at all. As the registration procedures by law can never take more than four months. However, Shahin added that the law that cut the registration period was new. "Until 2006, registration for medical and beauty products used to take from two to five years, he said. Shahin also showed Daily News Egypt three releases published by the Ministry of Health, one including a list of all medication and beauty products certified by the ministry, another one with the list of the medical and beauty products offered by the ministry in the medical insurance system, and a third including a list of the necessary medical products and drugs officially listed to be the most "important drugs that the government has to make sure are always available in the market, and at a fixed price that can neither go up or down. According to Shahin, the new law is meant to regulate the pharmaceutical industry which recently hit LE 10 billion. Shahin also denied Ramy's allegation that 90 percent of the medical drugs sold in pharmacies are unlicensed, saying that only "10 percent of medications are not certified by the Ministry of Health yet there are around 6,000 medical and beauty products present in pharmacies that are certified. The Pharmacists' Syndicate was also disgruntled about a decision to make around 102 medicines now available in pharmacies also available under the ministry's public medical insurance system at a very low price. Ramy said that the decision will mean big losses for pharmacies. They may also threaten the pharmaceutical industry since the Ministry of Health will provide outlets for medicines that are run by "salespersons who are not pharmacists. Shahin confirmed this decision to Daily News Egypt, but stated the number of medicines was 92 not 102. "Fresh graduates from the faculty of pharmacy might face an unemployment problem because their jobs are being offered to untrained people, said Ramy. "At the same time, pharmacies - whose number already exceeds market needs - will face new competitors providing similar products at lower costs. According to Ramy, the Ministry of Health obtained the license to sell these medicines by making deals directly with the manufacturing companies, and not through a public auction, which is what "pharmacies do to buy the right to sell medical products. "The Ministry of Health will make the public lose trust in pharmacies. . They will think we are stealing from them and selling the product at higher prices. The ministry was only able to get a better offer because it approached companies directly instead of going through a public auction. Also, because it is a government entity, it was able to subsidize the products. . None of these advantages are available to pharmacies. On the other hand, Shahin explained the decision to sign the deal with those seven companies was a means to provide more medical drugs to the 38 million citizens who benefit from the government's subsidized medical insurance system. "We have recently found cases of those who undergo heart surgery and need medication that is very expensive and may reach LE 370, Shahin said. Shahin stated that the ministry tried to make deals with the companies that produce the expensive, yet "badly needed , medical products to be able to provide them to the lower income brackets who cannot afford pharmacy prices. "We [the Ministry of Health] cannot force the companies to offer the medical drugs to the pharmacies at a lower price because they will lose money if they did that, he said. Ramy said that the Pharmacists' Syndicate sent a letter to President Hosni Mubarak demanding that he interfere. At the same time, it announced that it will meet again in two weeks and call a nationwide strike by pharmacies if the issue is not resolved. "Everybody is allowed to do as he pleases as we are living in a democratic society where everybody is granted the right to express himself the way he wants, Shahin said in response to the Pharmacists' Syndicate's decisions. However, Shahin finds it "extremely dangerous for the pharmacists to go on strike or close their pharmacies, as according to him, "pharmacists, unlike doctors, are always working on emergency cases, explaining that even the slightest ailment like a headache can disturb one's life if not treated immediately.
