CRR, ACPD, and EIPR Applaud 108 Countries' Call for U.N. to Address Maternal Deaths and Disabilities as Human Rights Issue
The Center for Reproductive Rights, Action Canada Population and Development (ACPD), and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) praised a group of United Nations Human Rights Council member states and observer states for calling on the U.N. to address pregnancy-related deaths and injuries around the world as a human rights issue. In a joint statement, 108 states acknowledged a recent study by the U.N.
Pharmaceutical Companies Intervene in Support of the Government in the Drug Pricing Case... EIPR: price reductions for 40 drugs are not a result of the new pricing system; the minister’s decree is in the interest of business
On Monday, 7 June 2010, the Supreme Administrative Court heard the appeal filed by the Ministry of Health challenging a ruling from a lower court suspending work under the new drug pricing system. If implemented, the system established by Decree 373/2009 would have lead to a sharp increase in drug prices.
Protest outside Parliament to Demand Increased Health Spending
The Committee for the Defense of the Right to Health, a coalition of activists and organizations including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and the Doctors Without Rights Committee, organized a protest yesterday, Thursday 18 May, in front of the People’s Assembly to protest the meager health allocations in the 2010-11 state budget. Health spending in the budget accounts for 4.9% of total public expenditure and 1.4% of the GDP.
Court of Administrative Justice Suspends New Drug-Pricing System… EIPR: the Ruling Stops the Violation of Citizens’ Right to Health & Life and The Government Must Implement It Immediately
The Court of Administrative Justice today issued a ruling suspending work under the new drug-pricing system, which tied drug prices in Egypt with global prices. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) filed an urgent lawsuit (no. 2457/64) on 22 October 2009 asking the court to suspend Health Minister Decree 373/2009, which would have entailed substantial price hikes for many kinds of drugs.
Limiting State-Funded Treatment to Six Illnesses Threatens Patients’ Lives...Minister’s Office and Specialized Medical Councils: We Know Nothing About this Decree
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights warned today that the lives of patients receiving treatment at state expense were under threat after the state-owned al-Ahram reported yesterday, 29 March, that the Minister of Health had issued a decree to limit state-funded treatment to six illnesses: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high-blood pressure, renal failure, and Hepatitis C patients receiving interferon.
EIPR Welcomes Withdrawal of Flawed Health Insurance Bill, and Asks Minister of Health to Submit a New Bill to the Public to Remedy the Failure of the Latest Bill
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights today welcomed the government’s withdrawal of its flawed health insurance bill and its decision to postpone submission of the bill to the next parliamentary session. The bill aims to provide universal insurance coverage but does so in name only, without achieving real, and just universal coverage.
Letter from EIPR to al-Gabali: Ministry Workshop Promotes Confusion between Generic and Counterfeit Drugs... Workshop Recommendations Suggest Less Costly Drugs are Counterfeited
In a letter sent today to Minister of Health Hatem al-Gabali, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) warned against the danger of recommendations adopted by a workshop on pharmaceuticals in Egypt. The workshop, held by the Ministry of Health’s National Training Center in February, was titled “He Who Sees Fraud and Remains Silent Is an Accomplice.”
Government failure to solve the crisis of state-funded treatment is tantamount to abandoning healthcare for the poor
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) cautioned the government that mishandling the crisis in the state-funded treatment program will lead to its abandoning its responsibility to provide medical treatment for the poor.
Workshop Held by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Examines the Challenges Facing the Realization of the Right to Health in Egypt
Challenges facing the right to health in Egypt were explored during the workshop held on Tuesday, 2 March by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).
Court of Administrative Justice to Issue Decision on Lawsuit Challenging Medicine Price Increases on April 27
The Cairo Court of Administrative Justice adjourned today's session examining the lawsuit filed by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) against the new drug-pricing regime until 27 April 2010, when it is due to issue a decision on the suspension of the decree. Lawsuit 2457/64 asks for a temporary stay of Minister of Health Decree 373/2009 establishing the new pricing regime as a prelude to its total abolition.
