The Health Ministry is restricting investment in the pharmaceuticals sector through its policies, the Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA), says. The Ministry’s “box” policy, which restricts the number of similar medications that could be produced in the market to just 12, including the original product and one import, restricts competition and hampers new investment, ECA adds. The pricing scheme, which is based on when producers file for the pricing request also, according to the ECA, violates fair market competition. The ECA’s chief, Mona El Garf, says her authority will continue to cooperate with the Health Ministry to improve the pharma market and attract new investments and aims to expand this type of cooperation to all sectors that “affect citizens” directly. (The link to the ECA’s announcement remained broken at press time, so we’re including a screenshot of the piece for those looking for the original.)

… in related news, the first batch of the medications imported by the government is set to arrive “within days,” CEO of the state-owned Egyptian Pharmaceutical Trading Company told Al Mal. The first batch includes blood derivatives, he says.