Egyptian Drug Authority denies reports of 40-medicine price increase in January 2027

The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) has denied reports circulating on social media that it approved a repricing and price increase for 40 pharmaceutical products effective from January 2027. Social media users had attributed statements to Ali Ouf, head of the Pharmaceuticals Division at the General Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, claiming the EDA had given approval to reprice nearly 40 items and raise their prices from next January.

Yassen Ragai, assistant chairman of the EDA, told Al-Masry Al-Youm that there is no prior approval to raise medicine prices in January. “There is no such thing as approving an increase in medicine prices in January from now; this is completely incorrect,” he said.

Ragai explained that pharmaceutical companies submit requests to the authority to reprice certain items, but these applications undergo inspection and review to assess the impact on production costs and determine whether a price adjustment is warranted.

Rejection of most adjustment requests

Ali Ouf, whose statements were cited in the social media reports, later revealed that the EDA had rejected approximately 90 percent of the price adjustment requests it received. He said companies had submitted around 400 requests, and the authority agreed to study only 10 percent of them, starting in January 2027.

Ouf told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the EDA reviews price movement requests submitted by companies and examines the production costs of the items to determine the feasibility of adjustments. He noted that the rejection of the vast majority of requests means the authority sees no need to adjust the prices of these items at the present time.

He added that the authority does not handle price adjustment requests with automatic approval. Instead, applications are subject to examination and review to verify the extent to which production costs have been affected and whether they warrant a price adjustment.

Cost review process from January 2027

Ouf pointed out that studying the requests—which represent about 10 percent of the total applications submitted—is tied to cost reviews to identify items that may require price adjustments. He confirmed that final decisions on these requests remain subject to study and evaluation.

He further noted that there will be no movement in medicine prices through the end of 2026, with cost and request reviews set to begin in January to determine whether specific items require price adjustments.

He stressed that any potential price adjustments are linked strictly to the results of the cost review rather than a general decision covering all medicines, adding that items whose costs do not warrant a price adjustment will remain unchanged.

The EDA regulates medicine prices in Egypt, and any changes are based on production cost reviews.