The cost of purchasing medicines from the Central Pharmacy has risen from 30 million dinars in 2021 to 300 million dinars in 2024, a tenfold increase in three years, Chokri Hammouda, CEO of this public company, revealed in an interview with TAP.
He pointed out that 16 types of medicines alone account for 250 million dinars of this amount.
In order to cope with this significant increase, he stressed the need to rationalize medical prescriptions by favoring less expensive drugs with equivalent efficacy.
He also advocated the adoption of therapeutic protocols that allow doctors to rely on available stocks and approved prices, while taking into account the individual needs of patients through approaches such as genomic medicine.
Another challenge is drug imports, which amount to 180 million dinars. The Central Pharmacy is considering aligning its prices with those of local equivalents, a measure that could lead to an increase for some products but would support the local pharmaceutical industry.
In financial terms, the facility has seen an improvement, with revenues rising from 14 million dinars in 2022 to 53 million in 2023. However, it still faces significant receivables, estimated at 1,260 million dinars, including 504 million from hospitals and 658 million from the Ministry of Social Affairs.
To ensure its equilibrium, the Central Pharmacy is relying on better cost management, digitization, debt collection and the maintenance of its import monopoly, which is essential to supply health facilities.
Tunisia produces 80% of its medicines
The CEO of the Central Pharmacy also announced that the Tunisian pharmaceutical industry has a well-developed infrastructure, with 42 factories producing medicines for human use and 4 others producing medicines for animals.
He added that Tunisia produces 80% of the medicines it needs. 95% of these medicines are generic, while the remaining 5% are purely Tunisian products. They are as effective as the original drugs and much cheaper,’ he added.
Regulatory and legislative challenges
For a long time, the administrative management of medicines in Tunisia was fragmented between several structures, which hindered the development of the pharmaceutical sector.
The National Agency for Medicines and Health Products, long called for by professionals in the sector, was created by Law 2023-2 of 12 July 2023.
This agency, which is seen as a strong signal of the State’s commitment to consolidating and developing this sector, brings together the structures for managing medicines and health products.
Its mission is to establish a coherent national pharmaceutical policy by strengthening controls on the manufacture, registration, import, export, distribution and marketing of these products.
However, despite the praise expressed by local pharmaceutical manufacturers for the creation of this agency, the sector still faces major challenges, not least of which is the current legislation, which is considered “inappropriate” for encouraging its expansion.
The legislation in question is essentially Law 73 on the Pharmaceutical Professions, which now needs to be urgently revised (…).
