Nawaf Salam: Strict Government and Judicial Measures to Combat Corruption in the Biosimilar Drugs File

The following statement was issued by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers:

"In response to several inquiries and questions from citizens and the press regarding the issue of similar or non-original (Bio Similar) biological drugs, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam issued the following statement:

"Medicine is not a commodity like other commodities. It is life that patients and their families depend on, and it is trust that citizens place in their state regarding proper oversight when taking treatment with confidence in its safety. When this trust is shaken, part of our social contract is shaken with it. Hence, protecting the health of Lebanese people is a fundamental duty of the state, and there is no compromise on it in any form.

The drugs file has become one of the files that have become a symbol of corruption and a resource for drug mafias, under the pretext of providing cheaper medication for cancer and chronic disease patients, in addition to wasting public funds through the Ministry of Health bearing the cost of purchasing drugs about which serious doubts are raised regarding their therapeutic and curative efficacy.

Therefore, the government, the judiciary, and the Ministry of Public Health have taken four consecutive steps aimed at regulating drug imports and tightening control over them, and preventing the entry of any drug that does not meet the required conditions and standards.

Firstly, because accountability begins with knowing the full truth, the Prosecutor General, Judge Ahmad Rami Al-Hajj, tasked the Central Criminal Investigation Division with directing a letter to the Ministry of Public Health to obtain a list of all similar or non-original (Bio Similar) biological drugs that entered the country since 2018 under exceptional decisions. The goal is to reveal every unsuitable drug that entered the country and let the law take its course without selectivity.

The method of approving and registering those drugs by the Ministry of Health in previous periods occurred outside scientific or technical frameworks, through exceptional marketing decisions issued by the Ministry of Health, without technical and scientific analyses, where they were introduced into the country under special or exceptional licenses.

Secondly, the Minister of Public Health decided to suspend the circulation of imported similar biological drugs from non-reference countries, i.e., countries whose factories do not enjoy global accreditation from the World Health Organization. The Council of Ministers adopted this decision, because people's health cannot tolerate experimentation or risk-taking.

Thirdly, the Ministry of Public Health, in cooperation with the World Health Organization, launched a process to update and develop the standards for registering drugs circulating in the market, along with training human resources within the ministry on applying them. Priority will be given to reviewing the files of similar biological drugs to verify their suitability.

True reform is not limited to preventing dysfunction but builds a system that prevents its recurrence.

Fourthly, based on a referral from the Ministry of Public Health, drug warehouses were raided, and violating drugs were seized and confiscated by order of the Prosecutor General.

This is a clear message that anyone who neglects the health of Lebanese people will find the state and the judiciary facing them.

The goal is to put an end to any health or financial corruption related to this file, protect patients from manipulation and exploitation, and pursue those who endanger patients' health for financial gains.

Thus, we have established a framework that ensures two inseparable matters: correcting the systems currently in use, and holding accountable everyone proven to have committed violations in the past.

This is the reform we promised, a reform serving the people based on accountability and reckoning according to the law. Let everyone trust that nothing can supersede preserving people's safety and security, and that nothing can stop us in our pursuit of clarifying the truth and punishing those proven to violate laws and regulations."