Egypt approves military’s entry into pharmaceutical industry
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has approved the entry of country’s military into the pharmaceutical industry. Egypt’s military has obtained the required license they would need to form a pharmaceutical company, as decreed by Ismail.
The country’s military has often been called in by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisito assist in major infrastructure projects and with distribution of subsidized commodities to keep a lid on rising prices amid an acute shortage of dollars.
Egypt has faced a drug shortage for months and the government raised prices on a number of medicines in January after months of negotiations with pharmaceutical companies hurt by dollar shortages and a weakening currency.
The Egyptian pound’s slump and the foreign currency crunch have made it harder for Egyptian pharmaceutical companies to import active ingredients they need to make generic medicines that millions of poor Egyptians rely on.
Egypt abandoned its peg of E£8.8 per US$1 on November 3 and the Egyptian pound has since halved in value. Pharmaceutical companies have been negotiating for months with the Health Ministry to raise medicine prices.
“The National Agency for Military Production is permitted to partake in the founding of a company called the Egyptian National Company for Pharmaceuticals,” the prime minister’s decree, dated January 17, read.
The economic weight of the military, which produces everything from bottled water to macaroni, has long been a topic of debate in Egypt.
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