BEIRUT: The head of the Order of Pharmacists reiterated Monday his call for the Cabinet to reject licensing requests by six new Pharmacy schools in the country, citing market-related reasons.
“We do not understand some people’s insistence on licensing new pharmacy faculties in Lebanon, especially that all the experts in Lebanon’s health domain have expressed their clear opposition to this project, which will harm the citizens health,” Rabih Hassouna said in a news conference held at 1 p.m. Monday at the syndicate’s office.
He said the Health Ministry, the League of Self-Employed Unions, Arab Pharmacists League and International Pharmacists League have all opposed issuing new licenses.
Hassouna dedicated his press talks to dismiss what he said were “myths” about the benefits of allowing new pharmacy schools to be erected.
The first argument that Hassouna refuted was that building new schools would create new learning opportunities for youth and prevent them from traveling to universities abroad.
“Only 5-10 percent of the pharmacists get taught outside Lebanon, which proves that the existing pharmacy faculties that are already licensed ensure Lebanon’s self-sufficiency [in the field of pharmacy],” he said.
The Cabinet has not yet been able to make a decision due to heated rows between different parties’ ministers.
Education Minister Elias Bou Saab is the main advocate of licensing new schools, maintaining that the state does not have the right to forbid eligible universities from opening new faculties.
Bou Saab recently told The Daily Star that even if Lebanon has an excess of pharmacists, they can seek employment abroad.
However, Hassouna responded to Bou Saab’s argument, underlining that just 200 Lebanese pharmacists work abroad, while 2,000 of the 7,500 pharmacists in Lebanon remain unemployed.
“Let them create job opportunities for those before thinking of opening new pharmacy faculties,” Hassouna said.
Hassouna also said that 90 percent of Lebanon’s medical centers do not hire pharmacists due to the inability to pay their wages, and many distribute counterfeit or smuggled medications.
“This is not a political or sectarian matter, it is purely professional and accepting [the new licenses] could actually threaten the health of patients and citizens,” he said.
“We warn that licensing new faculties will increase competition and turn the pharmacy profession into a commercial one,” he said. “Licensing these faculties will allow the selling of counterfeit and smuggled medicines, and thus the commercialization of the citizen’s health.
Hassouna had explained in a news conference last summer that Lebanon’s pharmacies to citizen ratio is very high compared to other countries. In Europe, he said, there are six pharmacies for every 10,000 citizens, and in the Arab world there are four. In Lebanon, that figure climbs to a massive 19 pharmacies for every 10,000 citizens.
He also believes that the further increase in the number of pharmacy graduates will lead to a decline in the average income of pharmacists in the county.
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