Amr Adib is intent on proving himself the king of fundraisers. His call to donate to the Abou El Rish Children’s Hospital, which is plagued by med shortages, has already raked in pledges from big name businesses including Pioneers Holding, Domty and rival TV networks CBC and Al Nahar. The Housing Ministry has also said it would donate land to the hospital. Adib said his campaign collected pledges of EGP 3 mn in its first day (watch; running time: 0:37). Adib interviewed the dean of Qasr Al Ainy School of Medicine to speak about the healthcare sector (watch; running time: 05:34).

Sticking with healthcare were Mehwar TV’s Sabahak Ma’ana and MBC Masr’s Yaduth fi Masr, zeroing in on the pharma industry and its med shortages. The latter had Health Minister Ahmed Rady over for an interview in which he announced that the state had allocated USD 186 mn this year to import 146 meds. The minister, however, maintained his position on the need to cap retail prices of meds in Egypt. Rady stuck to his guns throughout a nine-hour meeting with pharma manufacturers and pharmacy owners, according to Ahmed El Ezaby, head of the Pharma Division of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, who called in to Sabahak Ma’ana (watch: runtime: 12:30). While the meeting failed to reach an agreement on pricing, manufacturers agreed to give retailers a 5% margin under directive 499.

Lamees Al Hadidy spent the whole episode at the opening ceremony of the 38th Cairo International Film Festival along with Khairy Ramadan, where they both interviewed a number of Egyptian and regional actors (watch,runtime: 17:29). Ahmed Helmy won the Faten Hamama Award for Excellence 2016.