The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) yesterday (14) charged that improper storage conditions in pharmacies are responsible for failing of quality and related efficiency in drugs, and hence recommended that pharmacies follow correct procedures when storing their medicines.

“Many pharmacies don’t store their drugs properly, leading to many drugs losing their quality,” NMRA Chairperson Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama told The Daily Morning yesterday (14). “Therefore, we recommend that all pharmacies store their drugs at proper temperatures and discard any containers that are damaged,” he said.

These comments follow a report alleging that over half of the drugs that have failed quality testing are Indian. “The fact that they are Indian drugs is irrelevant,” Dr. Wijewickrama emphasised. “Approximately 85% of the drugs that Sri Lanka imports are Indian and if that’s the case, the majority of our drugs would fail. These issues stem from poor storage, often at the hands of pharmacies,” he went on to say.

It was reported that there were around 600 cases of quality failures since 2017, with 96 cases of drug quality failures in 2019. Meanwhile, 86 drugs failed quality tests in 2022. Last year (2023), a woman was declared dead at the Peradeniya Teaching Hospital after she was administered an anesthetic; it is however not known whether it was the administration of the same that caused the death.

In August, the Health Ministry sought Cabinet of Ministers approval to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Health Ministry to purchase drugs on an emergency basis.