Currency drop hits Egypt's medicine supplies, angering public

Pharmacies across Egypt are running short of medicines, some of them life-savers, as a plunge in the value of the Egyptian pound coupled with strict government price caps has made scores of products unprofitable to produce or import.

The shortages include some cancer treatments as well as basic items like insulin, tetanus shots and contraceptive pills.

Unable to raise prices above levels set by the Health Ministry but now paying roughly twice as much to import drugs or active ingredients, pharmaceutical firms say they have been forced to phase out certain medicine to stay in business.

"We aren't a charity. We have expenses and production costs, and if a company isn't making profit it will have to halt production," said Said Ibrahim, factory manager at EIPICO, one of Egypt's largest pharmaceutical companies.