The Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Ministry stated that the prices of 73 drugs are under regulation and 27 more varieties would come under the regulatory mechanism soon.
Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said the government aims to stop the importation of drugs by the end of 2020.
He said the government and private sector spent Rs. 90 billion to import a range of medicines to fulfill the national health requirement.
“We started the construction work of the eighth drug manufacturing plant at Ja-ela, recently. The Health Ministry entered into 38 agreements with the private sector to start drug manufacturing locally. Under this programme, we plan to manufacture cancer drugs too. Already four drug manufacturing plants have commenced production,” the minister said.
“The government has fulfilled Professor Senaka Bibile’s drug policy regarding three matters, such as the regulation of drug prices, state-controlled importation and the distribution of drugs and drugs manufacturing. This is a policy which the WHO has accepted. The drug management policy, submitted in 1971, was not implemented until this government came to power,” the minister added.
He said the implementation was limited to discussions and was not adopted or instituted due to political influence and unwarranted financial pressure. Some specialized doctors were alleged to have been paid gratuities by drug companies for prescribing certain brands of eye lenses, cancer and heart drugs etc., Minister Senaratne said.
“They were caught in the grip of multinational companies. We have requested companies coming under the Pharmaceutical Chamber of Commerce to join the local drug manufacturing endeavour,” he said.
The minister said the cost incurred to the private sector to realize the Ja-ela drug manufacturing factory was Rs. 1.4 billion.
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