Health: 3,168 generic drugs and 46 biosimilars are manufactured in Tunisia

Tunis: Director General of the National Agency of Medicines and Health Products, Abdelrazak Hedhili, said, Tuesday that 3,168 generic drugs and 46 biosimilars are manufactured in Tunisia.At a press conference held by the Tunisian Association of Generic Medicines (French: ATMG), on the presentation of the programme of the 1st International Days of Generic Medicines and Biosimilars which will be organized on May 17 and 18 in Tunis, he added that «the pharmaceutical industry has been active in Tunisia for over 40 years, making Tunisia a pioneer country in the field in Africa and in the Arab world.»He also underlined the importance of revising the laws governing the sector, specifying, in this context, that the authorities concerned are currently looking into the revision of Law No. 73 governing the pharmaceutical profession, calling for this purpose the need to review the prices of medicines in Tunisia.For his part, the president of the ATMG, Kamel Idir, indicated that the organization of the «first intern ational days of generic medicines and biosimilars» is part of raising awareness of the importance of generic medicines, considering that these meetings contribute to increasing awareness of generic drugs and their importance and usefulness to encourage their use.He stressed that generic drugs have the patent of reference drugs, adding that all scientific studies have approved their effectiveness without any risks, as they contain the same composition and the same bioequivalence of the original drug.Idir clarified that the cost of generic drugs is 40% lower than the price of the original or branded drug.Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse