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Lebanon’s Health Ministry has agreed to cut pharmaceutical subsidies from $108 million to approximately $50 million a month and that priority will be given to medicines for chronic and rare conditions. On Friday, the Ministry released a list of more than 1,500 imported and locally manufactured medicines that will no longer be fully subsidized, adding additional pressure to a health care sector already on its knees amid a crippling economic crisis. Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan had announced earlier in the day that subsidies will be ended for medications currently priced at less than $8 / LL12,000 on the official exchange rate and for those that can be found in primary health centers, but that they will remain in place on medicines for chronic, incurable, mental and nervous-system diseases, infant formula and vaccines.

Before, Banque du Liban subsidized pharmaceutical imports at a rate of LL1,507.5 to the dollar. However, amid widespread drug shortages, the ministry admitted in May that the central bank was not paying invoices from medical suppliers in a timely fashion and that as a result supplies were being held up in warehouses.