(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Pharmaceutical companies in the Palestinian territories have come in to provide 80 percent of local needs that were at a time in dire shortage due to Israel's continued siege on Gaza since 2006.
Currently some four companies operate in the West Bank, with only one in Gaza that is severely damaged due to Israeli bombardment amid the recent war, World Health Organisation (WHO) Gaza sub-office head, Mahmoud Daher told KUNA.
The factory in Gaza faces many obstacles, particularly the difficulty in getting hold of raw materials and equipment due to the siege, however, it does produce albeit in limited supply.
In the West Bank it is another story as all four firms are internationally-accredited, said Daher, who went on to highlight that their equivalent in Gaza possesses all the components to mirror these standards but Israeli occupation and local bureaucracy prevent this from happening.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health as a whole also has issues to face. For one, it is part of a government that that has debts worth up to USD 250 million, in addition to facing difficulties in importing medicine that is not approved by the Israeli government as per the Paris Economic Protocol.
Many patients head out of Gaza to receive medical care due to the unavailability of some types of medicine due to the siege, Daher added.
Explaining further, he said that of a list of 500 types required, only 153 have been allowed in by Israel, representing a meager 30 percent.
Israel has been blamed directly for destroying the business of the Gaza-based Middle East Pharmaceutical and Cosmetics Laboratories Ltd., also known as Megapharm. Its founder, Marwan Al-Astal, said that Israel has prevented his company from exporting its products abroad.
His firm manages to provide only 14 percent of local demand in Gaza, which sometimes drops to only 10 percent when raw materials are late coming in, he said, mentioning that it had to close for three months during the war.
It only supplies a quarter of its productive capacity due to the siege, and plans for an additional company in the territory have not yet been approved.
The company operates with Gazan manpower adopting Egyptian and Jordanian technology, he said.
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