Egyptian Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar urged stronger local pharmaceutical manufacturing to build resilient healthcare supply chains.
Abdel Ghaffar made the remarks at a healthcare supply chain event held on the sidelines of the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The minister noted that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed major weaknesses in healthcare supply systems such as excessive reliance on imports and weak local manufacturing.
Egypt's strategy rested on three pillars including digital integration linking more than 5,000 healthcare facilities and expanding local production to cover 85 to 90 percent of domestic medicine needs.
He also highlighted Egypt’s Drug Authority obtaining WHO Maturity Level 3 status and the success of the unified procurement system in reducing hepatitis C treatment costs.