Lebanon has launched a project that regulates the distribution of medications and provides people with medicine cards to organize the process of obtaining medication, caretaker Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced on Thursday.
The project comprises an advanced digital system that helps regulate drugs via a unified platform and enables people to register for a health number and a medicine card.
The system is the outcome of a cooperation agreement signed between the Lebanese Health Ministry and the track-and-trace solutions company Medical Value Chain (MVC).
In line with the agreement, MVC will supply Lebanon with 6 million free cards during the first phase of the project.
This card guarantees that its holder receives subsidized drugs, and it will be at the center of developing and implementing the unified medicine card later on, according to caretaker Minister Hassan’s announcement.
It’s worth noting that the MVC system, which is developed in cooperation with giant companies such as Google, IBM, and Amazon, has been introduced into more than 40 countries around the world.
In Lebanon’s case, the system is provided completely free of charge, according to Hassan.
Ultimately, its implementation in Lebanon aims to achieve the following:
- Reducing the drug bill
- Securing safe medication for patients
- Preventing smuggling and counterfeiting of medicines
- Ensuring access to subsidized drugs
- Preventing the stockpiling of medicines by any individual or group, including citizens
The project is divided into four stages, the first of which completes within three months and involves collecting all data related to the medicine card, in parallel to the establishment of the system and its circulation to the concerned authorities.
