The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) expresses grave concern over the ongoing medicine shortage across the Maldives, a crisis created by President Muizzu through politically motivated short sighted policies. The resulting hardship inflicted on patients with chronic and in some cases life-threatening conditions who cannot obtain their prescribed medications is immense. MDP Members of Parliament have consistently raised these issues in the People’s Majlis to no avail.
For years, the State Trading Organisation (STO) has complemented medicine imports serviced by the private sector without the shortages Maldivians face today. This system held fast even during the challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Rather than implementing meaninggul structural reforms, the Government’s decision seem to be driven not by genuine policy need, but by its desire to place control of a sector worth hundreds of millions of rufiyaa in annual public spending into the hands of political loyalists.
(1) This government took the first delivery of the bulk medical procurement initiative by the previous MDP government, but failed to continue this initiative with no further deliveries.
(2) This government called the private sector a "medical mafia" and went onto undercut the national Aasandha insurance prices for medicines, ignoring the calls by the private sector about the inherent risks related to supply. STO has been woefully inadequate in addressing the turmoil in the resulting medicine supply chain inadequacies.
(3) STO signed with a key Indian pharma manufacturer, only for the government to create a new dedicated SOE for the procurement of medicine.
(4) The new SOE has failed to secure medicine supplies, while STO continues sign with new medicine suppliers.
(5) On the 5th of May, the MD of Aasandha Ms Aminath Zeeniya, testified to parliamentary committee that stock-out complaints arrive daily, and that the medicine supply situation is a national concern whose root cause has not been identified.
(6) UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng on her official country visit to the Maldives, shared at a press conference on 7 May 2026, that the Maldives faces significant challenges in procuring essential medicines and medical equipment required for the healthcare sector, consistent with the concerns the MDP has been raising.
This is not public policy implementation. These are ad-hoc decisions made to reward political loyalists. Most of all, it is catastrophic failure of the Muizzu administration, inflicting immeasurable hardship on patients across the health spectrum. Numerous promises by President Muizzu to address this issue has failed to reverse the decline.
The MDP calls upon the Government to cease the use of public health infrastructure as an instrument of political patronage and institute technically sound policies. The MDP also calls upon Government affiliated Members of Parliament to join the MDP in holding the Government accountable in this important national matter. The MDP further requests the international community including UN agencies to continue to monitor the Maldives' compliance with its right-to-health obligations.
The MDP stands with and assures the people of Maldives that MDP will continue to hold the Government accountable and work to resolve this crisis.