Prices of medicine and medical equipment to be reduced: Minister

Gazette indicating the reduction will be issued within next two weeks

Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous medicine Rajitha Senarathne said that the Gazette for reducing the prices of 10 kinds of medicine and 25 medical equipment would be published within next two weeks.

He said so when the council for non-communicable diseases was held under the patronage of the minister at the Ministry of Health recently.

He added, “it is the government that purchases 95% of the medicine used for cancer. 5 % is sold to the private sector. The prices of the medicine for cancer are expensive. Therefore, the patients are not in a position to buy such medicine. The government spends more than Rs. 5 billion for the import of medicine for cancer. By reducing such medicine, the balance money that can be saved by the government is Rs.2 billion. The medicine called Tabsumab used for cancer treatment was sold at Rs.280, 000 when the good governance government came to power. Today it has reduced up to Rs.144, 000.”

He said further that he is going to reduce the prices of 10 expensive cancer medicine and that the Ministry of Health has paid to companies selling medicine as free health service until such time that the good governance government comes to power. According to him, a patient has taken medical treatment up to Rs. 4.5 million and the life expectancy of the patients has increased.

On this occasion, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health, directors and some representatives of the World Health Organization had participated.