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NMRA starts work, drug prices to be slashed by upto 50 percent
View(s):Some four decades after transnational drug corporations killed Prof. Senaka Bibile’s essential medicines concept, another silent revolution took place last Thursday when the members of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) were sworn in by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne.
The NMRA headed by Prof. Lal Jayakody – head of the Department of Pharmacology at the Colombo Medical Faculty – includes the Director General of Health Services and representatives of professional medical bodies and universities. The first task of the NMRA will be to re-implement Prof. Bibile’s national medicinal drugs policy and Minister Senaratne has given an assurance that within weeks or months the prices of essential drugs will be slashed by as much as 50 percent.
The People’s Movement for the Rights of Patients (PMRP) and other health action groups welcome the appointment of the NMRA. A PMRP spokesman said they hoped the NMRA would act fast and effectively to restore health service where the wellbeing of patients is given priority.
According to research by health action groups, about 15,000 varieties of drugs – possibly a world record – have been registered for import and sale in Sri Lanka. The first task of the NMRA will be to review all these drugs and slash them to about 1,000 as recommended by Prof. Bibile. The review of the registered drugs is likely to take a few weeks and the new drugs will be registered on the basis of five factors – quality, efficacy, safety, the cost of the drug and the need for it.
Speaking at last Thursday’s ceremony to swear-in the NMRA, Health Minister Senaratne said this was a silent revolution in medicine, similar to the people’s silent revolution which took place on January 8. The Bibile policy, first implemented in 1971 and acclaimed by the World Health Organisation, was withdrawn in 1976 after the United States’ government, apparently under pressure from TNCs, warned the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government that US aid to Sri Lanka would be stopped if the Bibile policy was not discarded. The premier had no option but to do so because at that time Sri Lanka was heavily dependent on US aid, especially the PL 480 wheat flour imports, the spokesman said.
Prof. Bibile then left Sri Lanka to work for the United Nations in British Guyana but in 1978 he died in mysterious circumstances.
In 1990, President Ranasinghe Premadasa appointed a top level committee to re-implement the Bibile policies but he was killed before he could implement the mission.
In 2005 and 2010, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured in his manifestos that the Senaka Bibile policies would be re-implemented, but it did not happen. Last year, the then health minister and now President Maithripala Sirisena charged that transnational drug companies had given upto Rs. 1000 million to VIPs to derail the Bibile policies. President Sirisena pledged that he would implement the policy and, true to his word, the legislation to implement the Senaka Bibile policies was unanimously approved by parliament in March this year.