By Ajithlal Shantha Udaya 

Private Pharmacy Owners’ Association expressed concern about the arbitrary increase of prices of drugs. Treasurer of the association Manjula Jayawardene said the drug importers had increased the prices much to the inconvenience of the public.

He told the media yesterday that the patients were facing hardship due to the excessive prices of drugs and stressed the need to implement a price formula to control the prices.

The association pointed out that the government hospitals were facing a severe shortage of essential drugs and medical equipment compelling the patients to depend on private sector pharmacies to meet their requirements.
“More than 80 percent of hospitals are short of drugs used to prevent bleeding after confinement. This drug is not available in most of the private pharmacies. Several hospitals are short of even Asprin. Those affected by this sad state are the poor patients. The government should intervene and work out a mechanism to save the patients from this sad state,” he said.

He further said that the importers were arbitrarily increasing the prices of drug and medical equipment under the pretext of the dollar crisis.