Lebanon suffers from shortage of cancer-curing drugs

In Lebanon, cancer patients have to overcome a double suffering; as if their disease is not enough, they have to worry about the lack of medications. Many cancer-curing drugs are currently out of stock, in Lebanon and worldwide, due to the shutdown of some pharmaceutical factories.       

While alternative drugs are expected to be out soon, the head of the Union of drug importing companies’ owners said that the prices of the alternative drugs will all be controlled by the Ministry of Health, adding that all the drugs have been ensured, except for 2 or 3 brands that are expected to be secured by next week.      

The head of the above-mentioned Union said that only one cancer-curing drug cannot be replaced, adding that it is out of stock due to worldwide supply problems. “The Ministry of Health and drug manufacturers are cooperating to solve this problem”, he said.    

For her part, the advisor to the health minister Rania Khalil told LBCI that the ministry is working on providing the missing drugs from many sources through local companies, adding that some medicines are not regularly available in the market. “We are intensifying pressure on pharmaceutical companies in this regard”, she said.


For the full LBCI report, watch the video above.