• NHSL Deputy Dir. Dr. Bellana takes SPC tenders to task 

Even though one key aspect of the proper management of the provision of medicines in Sri Lanka is monitoring and imposing appropriate restrictions on medicines manufacturers that have a questionable track record, Sri Lanka is yet to proactively pay attention to the matter.

Noting this, the Deputy Director of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) in Colombo, Dr. Rukshan Bellana emphasised that without addressing that concern, it would be challenging to ensure that medicines procured by the country’s health sector are safe and effective. He pointed out that there are many companies, especially from India, which provide medicines that have failed quality tests.

“The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) is giving tenders to companies with repeated cases without taking those cases into account,” he claimed, adding that instead of merely suspending the batches of low quality medicines, attention should be paid to the companies that provide such medicines and to their history relating to similar cases. He stressed that there is a need for the SPC, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), and the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) of the Health Ministry to be proactive, without waiting for medicines-related issues to take place. 

He made these remarks while speaking to The Daily Morning about the probes into the recent incident where a person who was receiving treatment in the NHSL had died after being given a certain type of antibiotic. In a context where several cases of questionable, medicines-related deaths and serious health complications have been reported during the past few years, the incident sparked nationwide controversy, prompting the authorities to launch a probe. Adding that the probes into the recent incident had concluded, Dr. Bellana said that it is difficult to say specifically whether the antibiotic in question was in fact the sole reason for the death.

Attempts to contact the NMRA, the SPC, and the MSD yesterday (13) to obtain their opinion regarding the abovementioned claims were not successful.