The People’s Movement for the Rights of Patients yesterday urged Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva to resist pressure from vested interests and go ahead to implement the patient-friendly national medicinal drugs policy based on Prof. Senaka Bibile’s essential medicines concept.
The appeal was made to the Minister in a letter with copies being sent to the President, all Ministers and MPs.
The PMRP said:
“We are greatly concerned to read an advertisement in the newspapers that you have asked for comments and views from the public on the National Medicinal Drugs Policy (NMDP). Our deep concerns are related to the following:
The NMDP was arrived by consensus following two workshops in February and July 2005. Representatives from all stakeholders including the Ministry and Department of Health, University Medical Schools, Sri Lanka Medical Association, Government Medical Officers Association, Pharmaceutical Society of Sri Lanka, Private Sector Pharmaceutical Industry and Trade, Sri Lanka Medical Council, Non-Governmental Organizations and Patients Groups.
The two workshops were facilitated by Prof. Krisantha Weerasuriya, Regional Advisor, South East Asian Regional Office of the World Health Organization. The Draft NMDP was handed over to you by Prof. Weerasuriya in July 2005.
The World Health Organization, Geneva studied the Sri Lanka NMDP and posted it on its website http://curriculum.toxicology.wikispaces.net/file/view/NMDP_SriLanka.pdf on July 27, 2006 recommending it as a useful model for other developing countries.
In October 2005 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the NMDP. And now three years later you are again calling for comments from the public for the NMDP.
You appointed a statutory body called the National Standing Committee (NSC) to initiate activities to implement the NMDP. The NSC had 18 members including representatives of all stake holders.
The NSC appointed a subcommittee to respond to the mandate given in the NMDP, namely, ‘Legislation should be enacted to provide a sound legal basis for regulating activities in medicines. A statutory body called the National Medicinal Drug Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) accountable to the National Standing Committee should be established’.
This subcommittee has successfully completed its mandate and drafted legislation to regulate Medicinal Drugs and Devices, Cosmetics, Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods. This will enable the establishment of the National Medicinal Drug Regulatory Authority (NMDRA) as stated in the NMDP.
This Draft Act was handed over to you by the NSC in 2008. The newspaper advertisements informed readers that you have got Cabinet approval. The PMRP expected you to present the Draft Act to Parliament for its approval and speedy implementation.
However, you had not taken steps to implement the NMDRA. The PMRP had therefore filed a Fundamental Rights Petition in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka calling on you to implement the NMDRA.
We are also very concerned that vested interests are preventing you from implementing the NMDRA. The reasons for our concerns are as follows:
We know, as you have stated at public fora, that you sincerely wished to implement the NMDP based on Bibile Principles and also reiterated in the Mahinda Chintanaya. However, the NMDP is a process of social transformation, one that reorders an existing deep-rooted system with powerful advocates. Addressing meetings to commemorate Bibile’s death anniversary you have told the public that the industry and the doctors are preventing you from implementing the NMDP based on Bibile’s principles.
You will understand our concerns from our description of events from July 2005 up till today. We fear that vested interests have played an unseen hand in taking the country back to 2005 with a view to removing the two innovative features in the NMDP namely the Needs and Cost-effectiveness provisions in the criteria for registration of drugs.
We sincerely believe that you will deliver to the people the NMDP based on Bibile Policies, the promises you gave on the 29th and 32rd Bibile Commemoration meeting on September 30,2006 and September 30, 2009 without giving into vested interests.We look forward to looking into our concerns and get the NMDRA implemented.” |
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