Egyptians face shortage of essential medicines as economic crisis deepens

As drugs for diabetes and other chronic illnesses dwindle patients are forced to turn to potentially dangerous black-market alternatives

The disappearance of essential medicine from Egyptian pharmacies because of a shortage of foreign currency to import them is causing panic among people with chronic illnesses.

Medications for diabetes – a condition that affects about 11 million people in Egypt – blood pressure, cancer and a number of psychiatric conditions are no longer available, according to pharmacists and patients.

Others have soared in price because of a supply shortage,, leading to a surge in sales of black-market, unverified versions of medicines that could be dangerous for patients.

“I have been on medication to treat my bipolar disorder for over six years. I am entirely dependent on it. A few months ago, I would have to search several pharmacies around me to find it,” said one Egyptian woman, 33.

“Now I am lucky if I can find one strip of 10 pills per month,” she said, well short of the 30 to 60 Lamictal pills she needs each month.

“I was told that because it’s not deemed as essential as other medicine, pharmacies aren’t supplying it. It has been a month since I have had to reduce my dose. I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone who has more than psychological symptoms to deal with.”

Lamictal now costs five times what it did at the end of 2023, just a month and a half ago.

The drug is one of many that have soared in price because of supply shortages.

Historically, the Egyptian government has heavily regulated medicine prices to prevent this scenario and ensure that even the poorest people have access to the drugs they need.

However, these regulations have lapsed in the past two years since the country has been hit hard by a currency crisis and economic downturn. Suppliers and manufacturers have raised prices to account for the increase in costs of importing the necessary drugs and ingredients due to the diminishing value of the Egyptian currency against the US dollar.

The shortages have been getting worse since early last year and are now at a “critical level”, Dr Noha El Sayed, who runs a pharmacy in Cairo’s Heliopolis district, told media.

“About 80 per cent of our listed medications are not available,” she said.

A number of broad-spectrum antibiotics, including Augmentin and Zithromax, have also disappeared from Egyptian pharmacy shelves, according to Dr El Sayed, in addition to tablet-form cancer medications.

Intravenous cancer medications are still provided at specialised hospitals, according to Dr El Sayed. However, some patients who need the medicine in pill form have begun to buy them via unofficial channels.

Black-market varieties of well-known brands, which may be expired or cut with additional substances, are circulating. Some Egyptians are resorting to unofficial versions of insulin, thyroid treatments and blood pressure disorder medications as the verified versions of these crucial medicines become less available.

Aside from being 10 times their listed prices in some cases, according to Dr El Sayed, black-market products are unregulated.

“The problem with buying medications on the black market is that much of the time they are not regulated, so they might include more or less of the listed dosage,” she said. “And some are just sugar or mineral pills which can be dangerous for cancer and diabetes, because patients who don’t take their daily dose can take a turn for the worse very easily.”

Local manufacturers have been unable to fill the growing gap between demand and supply due to increasing operation costs and a heavy reliance on imported components, Dr El Sayed said, emphasising that the availability of dollars and the high price paid to acquire them are the root of the problem.