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Set up quality control labs; manufacture drugs locally

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28 December 2016 08:03 am - 0     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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One of the national government’s important promises was to introduce legislation and effectively implement the laws to make healthcare, mainly medicinal drugs available to all people at affordable prices. Within months of its election on January 8 last year, the government did introduce comprehensive legislation for the implementation of Prof.

Senaka Bibile’s widely acclaimed healthcare and essential medicinal drugs policy. The legislation was unanimously approved.

After the general elections in August last year, the Health Minster appointed the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) to implement the Bibile policy. The widely respected pharmacologist Prof. Laal Jayakody was appointed as its chairman and the World Health Organisation’s former South Asian drug policy chief Prof. Krishantha Weerasuriya was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer.   
According to most health action groups, the NMRA which began operations in November last year after sufficient human, financial and other resources were made available to it did a fairly effective job in preventing dubious suppliers from importing non-essential drugs to the value of tens of millions of rupees. 

In one instance a supplier asked for a no objection letter to import anti-malaria drugs to the value of about Rs. 40 million. Prof. Weerasuriya checked with the Anti- Malaria Campaign which said such drugs were not needed as Sri Lanka was virtually malaria free. 

But Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne was not too happy with the pace at which the progress of the NMRA. He said the people were complaining they were not getting personal relief from the Senaka Bibile policy. The NMRA said that with about 10,000 varieties of medicinal drugs having been registered during the past four decades, it needed time to analyse all varieties and decide on the essential drugs that should be imported and prescribed. 

This was to be done on the basis of safety, quality, efficacy, the cost of the drug and the need for them. But the Minister wanted an urgent action. Prof. Jayakody and Prof. Weerasuriya then resigned saying they were unable to do their work effectively because of interference by ministry officials and other vested interests apparently including agents of transnational drug corporations.   

Some months ago, Minister Senaratne in a controversial move appointed another pharmacologist, Prof. Asita de Silva as the chairman of the NMRA and the Health Ministry’s Dr. Kamal Jayasinghe as the CEO. He reportedly told Prof. De Silva, head of the pharmacology faculty of the Colombo North Medical College, to work out a way to reduce prices of some essential drugs as soon as possible. Prof. De Silva did so and introduced a reduction in prices for 48 essential drugs. 

This was implemented from October 21. Two months later, despite protest and criticisms, the price reduction plan appears to be working effectively and a confident minister is saying that more price reduction will come soon. The Ministry is spending millions of rupees to advertise the effectiveness of this price reduction plan and how the Bibile policy is being implemented as a first step to give quality healthcare to all people.   

But senior pharmacists have appealed to the Minister and the NMRA to work out a price reduction plan where medical specialists will not be forced to prescribe any particular drug while no drug will be forced down the throats of the people.   

We also urge the minister to act fast in setting up the new drug quality assurance laboratory while going ahead with the public private partnership to set up companies that will manufacture 70 percent of the drugs we need.     

 

 


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