Ravi Kumudesh, president of the Association of Health Professionals, states that the government has saved nearly ten billion rupees thanks to a decision made by the Health Secretary to create competition among drug supply companies.
Commenting further, he said:
“Although we accept about 300 orders per year, more than 200 are purchased from private companies and simply labeled. About 80% of the drugs produced at the manufacturing plant of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation are sourced from affiliated companies and labeled. There is no benefit to the country or the people in maintaining a fake pharmaceutical company. A pharmaceutical company should be a place where medicines are genuinely manufactured. Otherwise, it just becomes a place that inflates the cost of medicine, operating as a corporation that seeks commissions from everyone involved.
There is positivity in the decisions made by the Health Secretary after inviting local producers. It is the responsibility of all health administrators to create competition between companies, whether local or foreign. We fully support this effort. As a result, the Health Secretary has saved about 16 billion rupees this year alone.
Some critics claim that the Health Secretary has been undermined, but how can you criticize a decision that has significantly reduced overall costs without increasing the price of a single drug? Even if they face backlash, it won’t harm the public.
The only way to improve the quality of medicines and reduce costs is to increase competition among companies. The drug mafia manipulates bureaucracy and regulatory bodies to create monopolies. Some people are unknowingly supporting the drug mafia’s agenda by trying to stabilize their dominance.
A wrong decision was made in 2017 to establish one pricing committee for superior companies and another for non-superior companies in determining local companies’ prices. While this might have been necessary in the start-up period to protect domestic companies, they should now be developed enough to face market competition. The Ministry of Health should not harm the public by allowing these companies to set higher prices.
Before the Health Secretary’s new decision, which was initiated through the call for bids, approximately 54 billion rupees were spent last year to purchase the same quantity of medicines. With this new decision, the cost has dropped to less than 38 billion rupees. Some companies that previously charged Rs. 12,000 for certain medicines now supply them at Rs. 750. This new policy has ensured that all medicines are purchased at lower prices than in previous years. A decision that addresses a long-standing issue should be supported during its implementation.
Regardless of who is elected president, this decision is necessary to combat the drug mafia in Sri Lanka. We urge political parties not to interfere with it for political gain.”