Rx for pharma in the new Egypt
How pharma can benefit from the political revolution changing Egypt
The current political revolution is changing the face of Egypt.
As the country changes, it is time to think about how Egypt's pharmaceutical industry can change, too.
Egypt is recognized as a tier 3 pharmerging country, but the market faces many challenges, especially in regard to regulatory and pricing policies. (For more on the Egyptian market, see The state of play in Egypt's pharma market'.)
What are the remedies for the ailments of this market? What can drive the market forward? Let me share with you my wish list.
Free Prices
Pharmaceuticals are the only commodity under legal tariff in Egypt.
The process of pricing drugs controlled by the Ministry of Health (MOH) is invariably described as vague and opaque.
Pushing prices down is a policy that only cosmetically helps a regime that does not want to take responsibility for providing decent health coverage to its citizens.
This policy creates great harm for local manufacturers, international pharmaceutical businesses, and patients.
Enforcing unreasonably low prices for medicines does not allow local manufacturers to spend on R&D or to be competitive in exporting their products.
It does not allow international companies to launch new products quickly, as they have to enter into a prolonged and unpredictable pricing battle.
The ultimate victim is certainly the patient, who is denied access to important and innovative medicines and is forced to get medicines from questionable sources while being exposed to the hazards of low-quality locally produced drugs.
Respect intellectual propriety rights (IPR)
Egypt can be a manufacturing and marketing hub for pharmaceutical companies in the Middle East and Africa.
This will not occur as long as the government is lax about enforcing IPR laws.
Enforcing IPR laws will make the Egyptian industry more disciplined and bring in automatic remedies to many current problems; e.g., better industry self-control of promotional practices, especially from local manufacturers.
Expand healthcare coverage
It is time for the new regime to make this a priority.
Egypt has one of the highest out-of-pocket expenditure ratios on health in the world.
Health coverage, if available, is so poor that patients flee to private providers.
It is imperative that a comprehensive healthcare system is created to ensure coverage for everyone, at least at the basic level of care.
If proper healthcare coverage becomes a national priority, the Egyptian pharma market will grow rapidly.
In a few years, it could compete in size with major pharmerging growth countries like Turkey.
In the current climate of change, my wish list for the pharmaceutical market is not far-fetched.
I believe these changes will benefit everyone, especially the patients and users who need access to real and effective healthcare.
Egypt is a big country, with a population of over 80 million.
The majority of this population did not have access to modern medicines in the past because politicians put a low priority on healthcare coverage, second to security.
For the desired changes in the pharma market to materialize, the newly elected governments in future must be committed to the healthcare cause.
For more on the Middle Eastern market, see The Middle East: A pharma market in the making', Forecasting the Middle Eastern market', and Forecasting opportunities in the Middle Eastern market '.