By Mohammed Darwish. mail@newsofbahrain.com Bahrain has enough medicine to meet demand, pharmacists have said, with nine in 10 drugs kept on shelves despite dearer freight and strain on supply routes. Shipments are still reaching health centres and chemists without a break, easing fears of shortages.
mail@newsofbahrain.com
Bahrain has enough medicine to meet demand, pharmacists have said, with nine in 10 drugs kept on shelves despite dearer freight and strain on supply routes.
Shipments are still reaching health centres and chemists without a break, easing fears of shortages. The heaviest demand is for drugs used by patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Adel Sarhan, president of the Bahrain Pharmacists Society, said stocks were ample across state health centres, private chemists and Salmaniya Medical Complex.
‘Around 90pc of medicines are available at all times,’ he said.
Drugs for long-term illnesses remain the biggest sellers, led by insulin, blood-pressure tablets and heart medicine.
Mr Sarhan said prices in Bahrain were close to those elsewhere in the Gulf, including the cost of the main types of insulin.
He added that regular imports had kept shelves supplied and allowed pharmacies to meet patients’ needs.
Nasser Ali Nasser, a pharmacist at Nooh Pharmacy, said imports were moving as usual and deliveries had not stopped.
He said around 90pc of its range was on hand at any one time. The chain runs branches in Karrana and Bilad Al Qadeem.
Abdulaziz Abdulhussain, owner of Al Razi Pharmacy, said higher shipping costs had raised the bill for importers but had not cut the flow of medicine into Bahrain.
The firm had kept buying from abroad despite cost rises and hurdles in shipping, he said, so that patients could still find the drugs they need.
Pharmacist Mohammed Saeed Nooh said the market remained calm, with repeat deliveries reaching chemists and no break in supply.
