A pharmacy in a neighborhood of Beirut. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — After calling on Tuesday for pharmacies to close their doors, the president of the College of Pharmacists, Joe Salloum, announced this afternoon an agreement on new terms of payment to importers and distributors of drugs and the reopening of pharmacies on Wednesday.
"An agreement has been signed between the College of Pharmacists and the union of drug importers that involves providing products to pharmacies on a continuous basis, according to a particular protocol. We, therefore, call on pharmacies to reopen tomorrow [Wednesday]," said Salloum in a brief statement.
Earlier in the day, the Order of Pharmacists had called for all pharmacies in Lebanon to close, "until the drugs are again delivered" by importers, while the Lebanese pound continued its free fall against the dollar on the parallel market after reaching a record of LL140,000 to the dollar at noon, before falling back to LL117,000 at around 5:30 pm.
Drug deliveries to pharmacies had been hindered for over two weeks.
Reversing this decision on Tuesday afternoon, the Order of Pharmacists announced the implementation of a new payment mechanism for non-subsidized drugs.
The new payment modalities now require importers or distributors to display on their invoices the prices of non-subsidized drugs in Lebanese pounds, according to the price set by the Ministry of Health. They will also have to mention the exchange rate decided by the Ministry and according to which the invoice was issued, as well as the amount in dollars. Pharmacies will be able to pay their invoices in Lebanese pounds or in dollars, according to the exchange rate established by the Ministry of Health on the date of payment.
The Order of Pharmacists has also called for the establishment of a daily price index that could change several times a day, depending on the exchange rate of the parallel market.