Egypt Receives A US Grant For Funding A Pharmaceutical Study.

Egypt is about to be granted a sum of about half a million dollars from the US. The sum will be used for supporting a study discussing the reduction of prices of pharmaceuticals and improve their availability in the market. The fund will be provided following the signing of a cooperative agreement, which took place in the presence of Margaret Scobey, US Ambassador to Egypt and Kamal Sabra, assistant minister of health for pharmaceutical affairs. The agreement was signed by Scobey as a representative of US Trade Development Agency (USTDA). Reports show that the healthcare section in Egypt will continue to grow by 10% annually for the next five years.

The intended study will check how the pharmaceutical companies in Egypt are going to improve their performance to cover increasing need for medication in the local market. Ambassador Scobey said “The United States and Egypt have had a long history of cooperation in the healthcare sector, including implementing programs to improve health coverage of underserved populations and strengthening the technical and managerial capacity of the health sector to positively impact the well-being of the Egyptian population,” Scobey said at the signing ceremony. Today’s USTDA grant is yet another opportunity for Egypt and the US to work together, this time addressing the supply and distribution of pharmaceutical products in Egypt,”

Meanwhile, Dina Iskander, a researcher for the Rights to Health program at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, commented, “This is a very important grant because there haven’t been many studies discussing affordability of pharmaceuticals in Egypt.” Iskander noted that most of the previously conducted pharmaceutical studies were focusing on the market researches without highlighting the public need for medications.

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