Online platforms help sick Egyptians find drugs

"I found that coming up with an out-of-the-box solution to the medicine crisis in Egypt was something very important to many patients," said Khaled Omar, the founder of the Twitter Pharmacy (Saydalyet Twitter). Omar, an accountant, launched the project in November to fill the gap created by the demand for certain types of medicine that are in limited supply or have disappeared from many pharmacies in Egypt.

"My area [of expertise] is far from medicine, but I think that launching such an initiative is something so helpful and might save the lives of many patients," Omar said. The drug shortages in the Arab world's most populous country prompted him to engage pharmacists and their assistants to help him in providing information on where certain medicines can be found and encourage users through the internet to donate drugs that they do not need.

Lobna Mohram, an engineer and founder of A Human Matters to Me (Ensan Yhmeny), a nonprofit organization, said that she was one of the first contributors to the Twitter Pharmacy, arranging donations through her association. "I think that it is a great idea," she said. "I wanted to support the idea through my charitable work in my nongovernmental organization, helping needy people obtain drugs."

Mohram believes Twitter Pharmacy is the perfect solution for Egypt's drug shortage problem, as it connects patients with volunteers and it allows low-income people to get drugs at the official price at the least, or perhaps discounted or possibly free, rather than buying them on the black market. Some drugs can cost as much as 600 Egyptian pounds ($38) on the black market, while the official price might be around 200 pounds ($13), Mohram remarked, noting that the medicine crisis can be catastrophic if patients cannot get the drugs they need.