Lina Manufacturing delivers first-ever locally produced Metered-Dose Inhalers to Health Ministry

From left: Lina Manufacturing Director Shiraz Akbarally, Director and Founder Prof. Anil Goonetilleke, Medical Supplies Division Deputy Director General Dr. D.R.K. Herath, Lina Manufacturing CEO T. Sayandhan and Manager Commercial Operations Lasitha Ranasinghe at the official handover of MDIs

Lina Manufacturing, the pharmaceutical manufacturing segment of Sunshine Healthcare Lanka (SHL), recently delivered its first order of 100 percent locally formulated and manufactured Metered-Dose Inhalers (MDIs) to the Health Ministry.

Delivered through the Medical Supplies Division of the Health Ministry, the consignment was handed over to Medical Supplies Division Deputy Director General Dr. D.R.K. Herath by Lina Manufacturing Director and Founder Prof. Anil Goonetilleke. Lina Manufacturing CEO T. Sayandhan, Director Shiraz Akbarally and Manager Commercial Operations Lasitha Ranasinghe were also present during the official handover of MDIs.

Sunshine Healthcare Lanka, the healthcare arm of the diversified conglomerate Sunshine Holdings PLC, officially commenced the operations of Sri Lanka’s first MDI manufacturing plant Lina Spiro Ltd in Kadawatha, in January 2021. The state-of-the-art factory, which has a qualified and experienced staff manufacturing a line of respiratory care products, is the only GMP-certified manufacturer of MDI products in Sri Lanka. Lina Manufacturing has been engaged in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector for over 10 years and is a thriving local manufacturer supplying a large variety of respiratory products to the government and private sectors. 

Lina has pioneered the development of local respiratory products with its patented Respiratory Inhaler Device and continues to invest significantly in R&D to introduce more products. As Sri Lanka’s first respiratory care research and manufacturing facility, Lina Manufacturing produces a range of respiratory pharmaceuticals and devices, including Beclovent, Flutivent, Salbuvent, Prazolin, Winterpan and the award-winning Ventohaler inhalers.

In December 2020, Sunshine Holdings announced its healthcare business’ strategic merger consisting of Sunshine Healthcare Lanka and Healthguard Pharmacy with Akbar Pharmaceuticals, Lina Manufacturing and Lina Spiro—the business units of Akbar Healthcare. The merger’s finalisation elevated Sunshine Healthcare as Sri Lanka’s first fully-integrated healthcare company, starting from manufacturing up to retailing healthcare products, including last-mile distribution across the country for all healthcare products. The company now operates in all five segments of the healthcare supply chain, namely R&D, manufacturing, importation, distribution and retail.