Video: Cabinet approval for National Medicinal Drugs Policy

5 February 2015 10:25 am Views - 4679

The Cabinet on Thursday unanimously approved the long-awaited National Medicinal Drugs Policy (NMDP) or the amended Senaka Bibile Drugs Policy to be presented in parliament to regulate and reduce the prices of drugs in the country.


The Cabinet proposal was submitted by Health and Indigenous Medicine Minister Rajitha Senaratne.


The National Medicinal Drugs Policy will be presented at the next parliamentary session after the Tobacco Bill is presented.


“Once the Drugs Policy is enacted, all the medicines will have to be imported and prescribed under their generic names and not under their trade names,” the minister told the Cabinet news briefing.  


He said drug prices will be drastically reduced once the policy was enacted with the prices of some medicines being reduced to one-third their price and some medicines to 25 per cent of their previous price.   


"At the initial stage doctors will be allowed to include the trade name of medicines within brackets followed by the generic name if they wish to and have faith in the brand. Gradually we will implement measures to import and prescribe only under the generic name," the minister said.


He said the policy was a complicated and therefore needed to be implemented carefully after drafting it properly.  (Lahiru Pothmulla and Sanath Desmond)



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