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New drugs policy soon to meet country's needs

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

A new national policy on drugs will be unveiled shortly to ensure public are provided with good quality drugs at an affordable price while encouraging local drug manufacturers.

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told the Daily News a decision has been taken to draft a new policy to meet the country's emerging requirements.

"I have already instructed the officials to take steps to draft this policy which also focuses on manufacturing quality drugs in Sri Lanka," the Minister added.

Under this policy, the Ministry has decided to provide state assistance to local companies engaged in manufacturing pharmaceutical items. "Accordingly, the Ministry will purchase these locally made drugs even though the prices of pharmaceutical items produced by these local companies are 20 per cent higher than foreign drugs," a senior Ministry official added.

He said due to a monopoly maintained by large scale pharmaceutical companies, the small scale companies like those in Sri Lanka are unable to meet competition.

"Therefore, a new policy on drugs is necessary for us to meet this challenge and ensure that local products are given a better price," the Minister said.

The Ministry has also decided to increase the manufacturing capacity of the State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation to compete with multi-national companies, an official said.

Accordingly, the Ministry has decided to call tenders to expand the number of raw-material suppliers to manufacture drugs in Sri Lanka. "There are very few companies engaged in providing raw material. We need to expand this to enable local manufacturers to purchase raw material at a competitive price."

"We are now exploring the possibility of commencing the manufacturing of liquid drugs. Machines will be imported shortly," the official said.

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