Keheliya deceives the Prime Minister

Officials of the SPC and the MSD have informed of the possible shortages and lack of foreign reserves to purchase medicines. It is the Minister of Health who has to discuss this in the cabinet and with the treasury to get money allocated

On 25th May, at a meeting called by the Prime Minister regarding the situation of medicines in the country, Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella had said that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) is responsible for the lack of medicines in the country. Minister of Ports Nimal Siripala de Silva had ably assisted him. In addition, they had said that the NMRA is delaying approving registration for local manufacturers and delaying the approval for donations. 

The Prime Minister, after listening to ministers, has said to take measures to bring the NMRA directly under the Ministry of Health and to change the administration accordingly. 

Medicines and medical equipment for the year 2022 couldn’t be ordered in 2021 due to lack of US dollars. This is the fundamental and only reason for the medicine shortage in the country and this is going to get worse.

Purchasing is done by the SPC and the MSD. NMRA is doing a regulatory job and is not involved in the purchasing process. Almost all the medicines which are out of stock have many registered suppliers. Therefore, the NMRA cannot do anything more in this regard. NMRA has registered many local manufacturers during the last year. However, they cannot produce drugs as there are no dollars to purchase raw materials. 

Officials of the SPC and the MSD have informed of the possible shortages and lack of foreign reserves to purchase medicines. It is the Minister of Health who has to discuss this in the cabinet and with the treasury to get money allocated. Now, he is trying to put the blame on the NMRA for the shortage of medicines for which he is totally responsible. Now, even with money from World Bank and ADB etc, it has become difficult to buy medicines as there are huge arrears to be settled with manufacturers in terms of payment. So, we are encountering a serious problem.

Instead of revealing the actual problem Rambukwella has deceived the Prime Minister. Or, does he want to put the PM in a difficult position? See the decisions taken at Prime Minister’s meeting. None of these is going to help Sri Lanka to come out of the drug crisis. The only persons who are going to be benefited are the people who would get commissions for giving ‘registration’ for substandard medicines and medical equipment when the NMRA is defunct.