Egypt's Ministry of Health announced Saturday that its committee for pricing medications works on checking the availability of medications at pharmacies periodically and works to make them available, according to a statement from the ministry. The committee for pricing medications examines prices of medications based on costs of production and materials, as well as the availability of alternatives and the level of change in prices in the producing country. One of its jobs is to raise and decrease prices of medications in accordance with the state of the market and the medical importance of the medication. Chief of the Central Administration for Pharmaceutical Affairs Rasha Ziada said that the committee is made up of professors from university faculties of pharmacy, commerce, and economy. She stressed that the committee is completely independent. Ziada added that the committee's meetings have resulted in raising the prices of 24 drugs. She pointed out that these increases in price were made after evaluating the expected price of every item, regardless of the prices proposed by the medical companies. The drugs were for treating serious diseases and the shortage of these medications could place patients' lives in danger. This list of medications includes antibiotics, nutritional solutions for intensive care units, drugs used for muscle extension, medicines for incubators, other drugs for the respiratory system, newborns, kidney supplements, and radiocontrast agents, as well as treatment drugs for patients with thalassaemia, said Ziada. Ziada confirmed that this increase does not mean that there will be any other waves of price increases for medicines, pointing out that the companies have submitted a large number of requests to raise prices of a number of medications. However, pricing is part of the ministry's policy of evading short-term and long-term shortfalls, predicting the causes of shortages, and working on the availability of a number of alternative medicines in the Egyptian market.
