Lebanon medicine importers warn essential drugs running out

Lebanon medicine importers warn essential drugs running out

BEIRUT- Lebanon’s medicine importers Sunday said they had run out of hundreds of essential drugs and warned of more shortages, as the country’s dire financial crisis batters the health sector.

Lebanese are grappling with a raft of shortages, including petrol, as the caretaker government discusses lifting subsidies it can no longer afford amid what the World Bank says is one of the world’s worst financial crises since the 1850s.

The local currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, but the central bank has been providing importers with dollars at a much more favourable official rate to cover a large part of the cost of imported drugs.