All retail pharmacies in Mali receive supplies from distributors such as LABOREX, UBIPHARMA, and CAMED, without demanding upfront payments. The pharmacist must pay the distributor on a bi-weekly basis for items sold following each supply, before ordering new supplies. At the pharmacies, patients with insurance coverage pay out of pocket 20% to 50% of the total cost of their prescription medication. The insurance then reimburses the pharmacies with the balance of the part payment (50% to 80%) no sooner than 60 to 90 days from the time of receiving the expense claim. Due to this long turnaround time, the pharmacies cannot afford to make the bi-weekly payments to the distributors and restock essential medications. Consequently, their businesses struggle, and medications are not readily available for patients.
These challenges make things very difficult for the patient. In fact, patients often need to
visit more than one pharmacy before completely filling their prescriptions.