Kuwait's ministry withdraws 21 pharmacy licenses, eyes new price regulation

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KUWAIT CITY - Minister of Commerce and Industry Omar Al-Omar issued a decision on the formation of a team headed by the assistant undersecretary for Companies and Commercial Licenses Affairs; with the chairman of the Anti- Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism Department, director of the Commercial Monitoring Department, director of the License Monitoring Department and a commercial inspector as members.

The team will oversee the private pharmacies and drug companies to control the prices of medicines; including diabetes and cardiology medicines as well as some creams, considering the prices increased by about 85 percent recently.

The team will also review the correspondence between the companies and pharmacies on one hand, and the Ministry of Health on the other hand; in addition to the inspection of pharmacies and drug companies to uncover violations in coordination with the concerned institutions like Kuwait Municipality, Ministry of Health, Public Authority for Manpower, Central Bank of Kuwait and Ministry of Interior.

The team will work for three months, and then submit a detailed report to the minister of commerce and industry. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has confirmed the withdrawal of the licenses of 21 pharmacies; thereby, increasing the total number of closed pharmacies to 61 as part of ongoing efforts to regulate pharmacies.

This is following the reports and recommendations of the committee tasked to enforce Law No. 28/1996 and its amendment — Law No. 30/2016.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry affirmed its commitment to strictly implement the Ministry of Health’s regulations on granting a license to a Kuwaiti pharmacist with a minimum of five years of experience in the field to establish a private pharmacy.