The shortage of medicines in Tunisia is a reality that Tunisian citizens face on a daily basis, but the figures for missing medicines in pharmacies are contradictory and, sometimes, fanciful.
According to Naoufel Amira, president of the Union of Private Pharmacy Owners (Spot), who spoke on Thursday, September 7, 2023, on IFM, the figure of 920 drugs missing from pharmacies relayed by certain media is very exaggerated.
The list of missing drugs varies depending on the period, but the National Medicines Control Laboratory (LNCM) estimated them last June at 250, the overwhelming majority of which are manufactured abroad.
Some locally manufactured medicines are also in short supply due to manufacturers’ difficulties in importing certain raw materials.
The real problem, Amira points out, concerns around 70 drugs which have no locally manufactured equivalents and which are non-existent on the market. Some are vital medicines that the Central Pharmacy has difficulty importing due to lack of liquidity and foreign currency, due to non-payment of bills from public hospitals.
