Thursday, 15 December 2022
The shortage of prescription drugs in North Cyprus, particularly in recent weeks, is unacceptable, pharmacists say, Yeniduzen reports.
The Secretary General of the Cyprus Turkish Pharmacists Association, Dicle Tekiner, told Yeniduzen that 25 percent of drugs on the market are unavailable and people have to go from one pharmacy to another in search of the prescription drug they need.
Tekiner said that 80 percent of the drugs come from Turkey, but drug manufacturers in Turkey have production problems originating from the devalued Turkish lira.
The government in Turkey has fixed that Euro exchange rate for what is paid to pharmaceutical companies and until yesterday, this rate was 1 Euro: 7.86 TL; In other words, the real value is less than half as determined by the international exchange rate at around 19.87 TL, she said.
Tekiner went on to explain that Turkey even buys packaging for raw materials from abroad, again in Euros. Consequently, pharmaceutical companies have reduced production even further at the year’s end in order to prepare for next year’s purchases.
It is expected that the shortage of drugs will last for a few more months, she said.
Meanwhile, in a separate article, Yeniduzen reports that a statement by the Ministry of Health denying that there was a drugs shortage, was challenged by the President of the Cyprus Turkish Pharmacists Association Umut Öksüz, who, in response had a meeting with Turkey’s Ambassador to Nicosia Feyzioğlu.
Öksüz said that the Ministry of Health’s statement that “the claims of lack of medicine do not reflect the truth” was “unfortunate“.
He said that he had taken concrete steps with Ambassador Feyzioğlu adding that, “We announce to the public that we will share the developments with all our people with transparency“.
