Prices for several medicines in Sudan rose by between 30% and 35% in mid-July last year, including treatments for heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and mental-health conditions, as the pound lost value against foreign currencies, particularly the US dollar. The decline pushed up the cost of imported medicines and raw materials used in local production.
Pharmacist Souad Khalid said exchange-rate fluctuations were quickly reflected in pharmacies, with prices for some medicines rising repeatedly, while many companies halted sales pending price stability or the repricing of their inventories. Pharmacists need to sell each pack at a price that enables them to buy the same quantity again after company prices rise, she explained.
Exchange-rate volatility reshapes prices
Hafez Ahmed, director of the circular medicine department, said the National Medicines and Poisons Board oversees pricing under approved mechanisms, including an estimated 20% profit margin on the manufacturer’s price.
Ahmed added that pharmaceutical supplies adhere to the essential medicines list adopted by the Ministry of Health, which contains around 600 items, with a focus on around 100 emergency and life-saving medicines. He said stocks were plentiful at circular medicine pharmacies.
Najm al-Din Majzoub, director of the Ministry of Health’s General Directorate of Pharmacy, said movements in the dollar and other foreign currencies directly affect the prices of imported medicines and indirectly affect the cost of raw materials used in local manufacturing. The private sector supplies between 70% and 80% of the pharmaceutical market, he said, making its ability to obtain foreign currency a key factor in maintaining the flow of medicines.
8 factories resume production
Estimates from the pharmaceutical industry indicate that around 8 factories have resumed operations out of 30 that stopped operating because of the war in the capital, Khartoum. This increased the market’s reliance on imported medicines amid sharp exchange-rate fluctuations.
Majzoub said 8 local factories had begun resuming production, adding that expanding the national pharmaceutical industry could reduce the long-term impact of foreign-currency fluctuations, despite part of the industry continuing to rely on imported raw materials.
Majzoub said the biggest impact of higher prices was being felt by patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, who face a fixed monthly medicine bill. He warned that higher costs could prompt some patients to reduce their doses or change how they take their treatment without medical advice. He also said rising prices for officially supplied medicines could create space for a parallel market offering cheaper products, stressing that regulators were focused on the quality of medicines reaching patients through licensed channels.
More funding needed to protect treatment programs
The National Medical Supplies Fund sought to protect medicines and state-funded treatment programs from the impact of exchange-rate changes by increasing the allocations needed to provide the same quantities. Mohamed Ibrahim, director of the fund’s General Directorate for Procurement and Cooperation, said a higher exchange rate directly increases the funding required to purchase the same quantity of medicines allocated to national programs.
“If the state allocates an amount and the exchange rate rises, that increase must be offset to obtain the same medical supplies in the same quantities”
Ibrahim added that state-funded national programs provide medicines free of charge through health facilities, and that maintaining available quantities requires flexible budgets that can absorb changes in the cost of imports, transport and raw materials. He linked the continued availability of these medicines to the government’s ability to keep funding in line with rising costs. Majzoub, meanwhile, linked broader market stability to coordination between medical supplies providers and the private sector, the provision of foreign currency to importers and the expansion of local manufacturing.
War squeezes purchasing power and production
The medicine price increases come as families face the repercussions of the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, alongside worsening economic conditions, rising poverty rates and declining ability to afford treatment. Citizen Faisal Othman Makki said the rise in medicine prices, coinciding with the currency’s decline, had become one of the hardest burdens of daily life, adding that delaying treatment makes patients’ conditions more difficult.
Since late July last year, the army has taken control of wide areas of North Kordofan after retaking Bara city and the areas of Jabra al-Sheikh and Umm Sayala, and securing the main road linking Bara with Omdurman, west of the capital Khartoum. North, West and South Kordofan states have seen clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces since October 25 last year.
Sudan has been at war since April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, leaving tens of thousands dead and displacing around 13 million people, according to UN and international estimates.
