Philippines gives drugs for Lankan dengue patients

A pharmaceutical firm in the Philippines has agreed to donate 4,000 bottles of Dextran 40, a drug used for expanding plasma in dengue patients to Sri Lanka on a request by the Sri Lanka Pharmaceutical Industrialists Association, its President Ananda Samarasinghe told Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena yesterday.

This donation worth Rs 570,000 will be made by EuroMod Laboratories of the Philippines.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also donated 1,200 bottles of Dextran 40 to Sri Lanka recently.

The Sri Lanka Pharmaceutical Industrialists Association President informed the Health Minister that the drug will be brought to Sri Lanka within the next two weeks, a Health Ministry press release said.