He said that a price determination mechanism has been prepared for this and that it will be implemented through a gazette notification in the next few days.
Speaking to the media in Kandy on Wednesday the Deputy Minister said: “There is a price control committee affiliated to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority. In the ten years since the establishment of this National Medicines Regulatory Authority, as much as price control committees were appointed, a mechanism for determining prices should have been developed as well. However, that task has been neglected by the respective Governments. Despite this, the committee has controlled the prices of medicines and surgical instruments to some extent.
“A restraining order was issued against the functioning of this committee in a case filed in Court about five years ago. As a result, the Government did not have the opportunity to directly intervene in controlling the prices of medicines and surgical instruments. That was an unfortunate situation. Despite this, we have taken various steps in the past to control prices. The people did not get the benefit of the weakening dollar when purchasing medicines. It should also be said that some companies have voluntarily provided some concessions.
“We have developed a price determination mechanism for price control in the last 1 1/2 months. This can be enforced through a gazette notification in a few days. After that, we will be able to control the prices of a number of medicines through a more reasonable method. With this, the prices of medicines related to many diseases including diabetes, high blood pressure will be reduced by a considerable amount.
About 860 types of medicines and 12,000 surgical instruments are used under the Health Ministry. One-third of the medicines we use are manufactured in Sri Lanka. By now, the monopoly on the import of medicines has been broken and several companies have been given the opportunity. This has enabled a significant reduction in the prices of many medicines. After the introduction of the new system, the public will benefit from it in another way. There is a frequent shortage of certain medicines. The Government has focused on directly importing such medicines through intervention”.
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