Cancer patients in Lebanon have been pleading with the Lebanese Ministry of Health and the rest of the government for months on end to supply them with their medication.
The Lebanese medicine market has seen countless shortages in recent months, especially for cancer medication.
The reason behind this, as the Head of the Syndicate of Pharmacists Joe Salloum has revealed, is that the Central Bank was delaying opening credit accounts to import subsidized medicine.
The Central Bank insists that the reason behind this is that it is unable to continue subsidizing medical supplies for much longer. However, due to the collapse of the Lebanese Lira, many patients in Lebanon are unable to afford non-subsidized medicine.
Salloum added that his syndicate managed to raise $25 million in order to import medicine last month, however, they faced the same problem with the Central Bank, which led to more interruptions.
Another reason that is worsening this crisis, Salloum added, is the Lebanese government delaying payments to medicine-importing companies.
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