The Office of the Minister of Public Health Hamad Hassan issued a statement on Saturday for pharmacies to adhere to the new prices of infant milk formula, which will not exceed LBP 12,000 for ordinary milk, and LBP 13,200 for milk with a special formula.
The ministry issued a statement, saying: “The Health Ministry would like to draw the attention of pharmacists and pharmacy owners to the need to adhere to the new prices for infant formula in implementation of Resolution 2548/1.”
This statement came in accordance with the newly appointed Health Minister Hamad Hasan including the Baby milk to the list of essential imports subsidized by Lebanon’s central bank on January 31st.
Minister Hamad tweeted on this topic announcing that: “An agreement was reached with Banque du Liban to add infant formula milk to products supported by the bank.”
He added, “We will start applying the new bases for pricing infant formula from zero to one year twelve thousand Lebanese pounds for regular milk, and thirteen thousand and two hundred Lebanese pounds for milk with a special formula.”
The price of the baby milk has been a challenge facing parents in Lebanon, especially that the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) does not provide coverage for these essential products.
Several attempts have been made before to solve this issue. On January 10th of this year, Banque du Liban (BDL) continued refusing to enlist baby milk among basic materials in the subsidized list created by the bank.
Previous Minister of Health Jamil Jabak froze implementing the decision of reducing baby milk prices on the pretext of awaiting the approval of the BDL to secure the credits required to import milk in dollars.
