Lebanon under Health Threat: Shortage of Some Medicines

Many Lebanese are suffering from a shortage of medicines that is threatening their lives, especially patients with chronic diseases. Meanwhile, most pharmacists blame importers for not protecting the local market and people’s exaggerating fears.

Customers standing in a pharmacy while waiting for their request. Photo Courtesy of (Hussein Kassab).

Salwa Jaafar, a diabetic patient, says that she “had to buy one of the diabetes medicines at a double price after searching for it in pharmacies across several governorates,” expressing her fear of losing it completely.

“Merchants and importers are storing and monopolizing the drug, waiting for its price to double before putting it on the market,” says Mahmoud Abbas, owner of a pharmacy.

A pharmacist is checking if the requested medicine is available. Photo Courtesy of (Hussein Kassab).

Lebanese have signaled the disappearance of some medicines throughout Lebanon, especially for diabetes, blood pressure, and even antidepressants and fever pills used to treat COVID-19.

The Central Bank of Lebanon (BdL) said last month that the government will not be able to keep up with subsidies, including medicines because of the low foreign reserves.

Ghassan Al-Amin, the head of the Pharmacists Syndicate, said commenting on this announcement “this led to storm and an earthquake.”

“The shortage is exacerbated because of the panic buying and storage after the central bank decision,” says Abbas Fakih, owner of a pharmacy. “The drug crisis is due to some storing medicines because of fear not being able to afford them, and suppliers also store medicines, for the fear of not having enough dollars to buy more, or they hope to sell at a higher price when the subsidy is raised, and overcrowded pharmacies cannot store shelves because suppliers are now demanding cash,” he explains.

The concern of Lebanese has increased about the shortage of medicines. Photo Courtesy of (Hussein Kassab)

Karim Gebara, the head of the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Importers told “L’Orient Today” health is a priority and people’s actions about this situation are normal. He also considered that people who are buying the same drug from different pharmacies to stay safe might leave other patients with no medicine.