The Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Prop­er­ty De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (NIPDEC) has dis­posed of an es­ti­mat­ed $80 mil­lion worth of ex­pired phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals be­tween 2020 and 2025.

The star­tling fig­ure was re­vealed by Health Min­is­ter Dr Lack­ram Bo­doe dur­ing yes­ter­day's Mid-Year Bud­get De­bate in Par­lia­ment. He said he re­quest­ed a re­port from NIPDEC out­lin­ing the book val­ue of both phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals and non-phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals dis­card­ed over the pe­ri­od.

“It speaks to a big prob­lem here in terms of sup­ply chain man­age­ment and so on. And why, in fact, so many drugs, such a high val­ue, have to be dis­posed of.”