The Parliament’s Health Committee has amended a closure in the Universal Healthcare Act relating to pharmacies under the act, where the government would now run direct contracts with privately owned pharmacies to secure medicines for the scheme. This effectively amends the clause that previously required government healthcare insurance act regulators to establish and own pharmacies, according to the committee’s deputy chair, Ayman Abul Ela. Abul Ela added that the market for pharmacies is saturated as it is, and government competition would hurt already well-established companies.