Pharmacies asked to remove products from siege countries

The Pharmacy and Drug Control Department in the Ministry of Public Health issued a notice asking all pharmacies in Qatar to remove products imported from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt and to return them to the dealer.

The notice said that the inspectors of the Pharmacy and Drug Control Department will inspect all pharmacies to verify if the order has been implemented fully.

The order comes in line with the notice issued by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC) on May 26, which required all shops and commercial complexes operating in the country to remove all consumer goods imported from blockading countries.

The decision will mainly affect the medicines and beauty products coming from these countries. Alternative products are already available in the market and pharmacies were seen removing the stock from siege countries off their shelves in line with the order and replacing them with products from other countries.

According to doctors, The Peninsula spoke to there will not be any problem of shortage in medicines as the supply chain is already in place with big medicine exporters like India, Turkey and countries in Europe. Distributors are already importing directly from Europe and other producing countries.

Even the order from MEC was implemented very smoothly as the supermarket shelves were filled immediately with products from other countries that many consumers didn’t even notice the change.