Three int’l pharmas withdraw medicines from Turkish market over lira depreciation

Three international pharmaceutical companies have begun withdrawing some of their medicines from the Turkish market. This decision was attributed to the fact that the euro exchange rate for pharmaceuticals remained almost half of the normal exchange rate.

Duvar English

International pharmaceutical companies started to withdraw some of their medicines from the Turkish market after the 17.55 euro/Turkish lira rate for pharmaceuticals fell to almost half of the normal rate of 32.92.

The euro exchange rate for the pharmaceutical has been normally updated once in February, yet the government increased it by 25 percent on December as well in 2023 due to the severe depreciation of lira.

According to Habertürk TV, three companies will no longer sell some of their medicines including those vital for diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson's, and migraine in the Turkish market.

The pharmacists announced that the pharmaceutical monopoly Novartis, in a message sent to pharmaceutical warehouses, informed the Health Ministry that it had completely terminated the sale of many medicines, including Alzheimer's, asthma, epilepsy, and eye medicines, as of December 2023.

As of Jan. 23, the exchange rate stands at 32.9341 Turkish liras for one euro. Throughout 2023, the average exchange rate was 25.7597, reaching its lowest point at 19.7065 in January and the highest point at 32.7501 in December.

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Topics pharmacists