The Cabinet of Ministers will decide today on the new price increase for medicines that will be represented by Minister of Health and Population that includes increasing prices of 15% of local producers registered medicines and 20% of foreign producers medicines, every sixth months, but with different rates depending on the selling price, according to sources speaking to Al Borsa. The new pricing was mostly reportedly agreed upon by local and multinational producers as well as the health committee in the parliament. However, the pharmacists syndicate rejected the price increase as they were excluded from the price increase negotiations, and accordingly the syndicate approved a bill to close all pharmacies for six hours in 15 January as a sign of objection while calling on their promised margins, according to Wahid Samad, the secretary general of the Pharmacists syndicate fund. The new pricing  proposal  includes locally produced medicines: i) 50% increase for medicines selling for less than EGP50, ii) 30% for medicines selling between EGP50-100, iii) 25% for medicines selling between EGP50-100, and iv) 20% for medicines selling for more than EGP100.  It is worth noting that the majority of  EIPICO’s (PHAR.CA) medicines sell for less than EGP30. (Al Borsa, Al Mal, Al Alam Al Yoom, Wafaa Baddour, Adham El Badrawy)   EIPICO: EGP82.76 as of 22 Dec 2016, Rating: Buy, TP: EGP105.00 per share, MCap: USD350mn, PHAR EY / PHAR.CA