Caretaker Minister of Health, Hamad Hassan, received a letter from his Syrian counterpart, Hassan Muhammad Al-Ghabash, expressing his country's readiness to "supply Lebanon with its needs of pharmaceutical items that are produced in Syria."

The Syrian minister explained in the letter that this comes "in light of Lebanon needing many types of medicines and medical supplies at a time when the Syrian medicine has a competitive advantage in terms of quality and price."

On a different noted, Minister Hassan and caretaker Minister of Industry, Imad Hoballah, concluded a five-day visit to Russia with a visit to Moscow State University, the largest in Russia, and a meeting with Lebanese students at Penza University, in the context of a detailed program of field tours that included academic edifices and pharmaceutical companies.

The visit provided an opportunity to discuss with the Russian Minister of Health a new horizon for bilateral cooperation through direct agreements between the government represented by the Lebanese Ministry of Health and a number of Russian drug factories, especially in terms of providing drugs for cancer and chronic and rare diseases.