The Ministry of Health and Population has approved three more pharmaceutical producers to produce and sell  the “ Daklinza” medicine for treating Hepatitis C, raising the number of authorised Daklinza producers in Egypt to seven companies. Also, the Ministry is in the process of approving registering the Daklinza medicine to five more companies that have applied, after testing the drug, which -if accepted- would further raise the number of Daklinza producers to 12, according to a source from the Ministry of Health speaking to Al Mal. The source added that the Ministry is planning to reduce the Daklinza prices, sold along with the Sovaldi medicine, within the next few weeks to EGP200 in pharmacies and EGP60 for Ministry of Health tenders, after the raw material prices had fallen almost 50% last year. The Ministry will include all the registered Daklinza producers in the tender, as it earlier received 100k packages of the drug, which was supplied to 48 nation-wide liver disease management centres. A number of producers have already started supplying pharmacies with the Daklinza for over a month, along with its completing drug “Sovaldi”, including: Egyptian International Pharmaceutical Industry Company (EIPICO) (PHAR.CA), Eva Pharma, Pharco and Marcyrl. (Al Mal)   EIPICO: EGP67.04 as of 12 May 2016, Rating: Buy, FV: EGP83.00 per share, MCap: USD599 million, PHAR EY / PHAR.CA