The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) will issue prices for four new healthcare products, following a recent court decision that adjusted an interim injunction affecting pricing regulations.
NMRA Chairman Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama told The Sunday Morning that while the injunction was still in place, the change now allowed the authority to set prices for these new products.
Dr. Wijewickrama explained that the pricing process involved checking external reference prices in the country of manufacture and comparing them to local prices.
“When we have more products registered at lower prices, the Government spends less on the State health sector,” he noted.
He said that once the injunction was lifted, the NMRA was prepared to reduce prices further.
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) recently reported that household healthcare costs in Sri Lanka had surged by 48% between 2020 and 2021, while access to primary healthcare had dropped from 95% in 2019 to 82% in 2022/’23.
The IPS noted that Sri Lanka had allocated only 8-9% of its public spending to healthcare – significantly lower than the global average.
With rising costs disproportionately impacting vulnerable households, the IPS recommends expanding social health insurance, reducing out-of-pocket expenses, and encouraging Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), citing successful health reforms in Thailand and Indonesia as potential models for Sri Lanka.
The NMRA recently issued new regulations to establish a transparent pricing mechanism for medicines, but legal obstacles prevent expanding the list of regulated drugs.
The Medicines (Pricing Mechanism) Regulations No.1 of 2024 will use an internationally recognised portal to assess market share and verify retail prices. The Maximum Retail Price (MRP) will be based on the median price of brands holding 80% of the market share.
In June 2023, the Health Ministry reduced prices of 60 medicines by 16%. Since 2021, prices have been revised three times due to exchange rate fluctuations, with increases of 9%, 29%, and 40%.