• Dep. Health Min. notes unethical conduct of suppliers not submitting bids
• Says legal issues need resolution prior to proceeding with process

The Ministry of Health stated that the Government plans to import nearly 50 pharmaceutical drugs currently in short supply through a Government-to-Government approach, while suppliers have agreed to import the remaining medicines.

It was recently reported that the ministry has given suppliers two weeks to confirm as to whether they can provide the essential drugs that are in short supply and which have no substitutes.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Hansaka Wijemuni said that there are around 30 drugs for which there are no registered suppliers, while others do have registered suppliers but the authorities have received no bids from them. By avoiding submitting bids, he claimed that certain suppliers are forcing the authorities to source the drugs from the market. Although it is an unethical approach for suppliers to do so, he said that there are several suppliers who do it. "To address this, we provided importers with a list of drugs that lack suppliers or have not received bids. We granted them more than two weeks to respond to us, and we have received some responses. Accordingly, they will be supplying some of the drugs. However, there are still about 50 drugs for which no clear solution has been found. They will have to be imported, either from multiple countries or a single country. We aim to facilitate this process through a Government-to-Government approach. Certain legal issues should be resolved first before proceeding with this process."

The country’s health sector faced a serious setback in recent years, primarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic crisis. This crisis led to significant shortages of pharmaceutical drugs and medical equipment, which were later resolved to a considerable extent through foreign aid and economic recovery.