The Information office of Deputy prime Minister Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani issued the following statement:

The prices of many medicines were reduced by up to 70%, the average price reduction being 29.6 after the annual pricing review according to the pricing standards. 50% of 913 kinds of medicines were reviewed up to this date; the other 50% will be reviewed within the next few days.

The Ministry’s decision was published in the official gazette after obtaining approval from the concerned ministries; Ministries of Industry, Economy and Finance, the Shura Council, the syndicate of Pharmacists, importers and pharmaceutical industries.

In parallel, work is being carried out in collaboration with the syndicate of pharmacists on a series of reforms in this sector in order to promote the role of pharmacists in controlling the medicine consumption by tracking drugs through barcode, implementing the unified prescription and conducting inspection in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health.

These steps aim at reducing significantly the prices of a wide range of medicines, helping make available all kinds of medicines in the market, supporting the pharmaceutical sector and protecting citizens from a potential medicine shortage because of low prices.