DRUG MAFIA, BIGGEST OBSTACLE TO REDUCING DRUG PRICES: RAJITHA

At yesterday’s monthly meeting of the heads of departments of the Health Ministry, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne highlighted the inhumane and heartless attitude of drug companies. He said he had pressured a certain drug importer to reduce the price of a cancer drug from Rs.280,000 to Rs.37,500 and revealed that according to the information he had received this company had recently increased the price of this particular drug to Rs.80,000.

He vowed to implement the National Medicinal Drugs Policy in a few months to save hapless patients from the clutches of the drug mafia. “I know how multinational drug companies function. The drug mafia has hurt the healthcare services and have no pity on poor patients when they sell drugs with profits of 800% to 1000%.

The minister said the Health Ministry was able to place an order for this drug at Rs.65,000 during the competitive bidding for drugs at last month’s tender procedure.

He said if quality substitutes were available drug prices could be reduced to an affordable level but the drug mafia sabotaged the attempts of the Health Ministry to import high quality substitutes for expensive drugs from countries like Russia. The minister said a quality substitute for the treatment of cancer could be imported from Russia for Rs.42,000 resulting in reducing the import cost of this drug from Rs.1.2 billion to Rs.660 million. Apeksha Hospital Director Dr. Wifred Kumarasiri said all doctors except four at the hospital used the substitute drug and discussed why certain doctors had stopped using Herticad produced under the generic name of Truseuzumab.