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The government made a much publicised promise a long time ago to formulate a national drug policy. It said it would put an end to exploitation by pharmaceutical companies of the sick and make quality drugs available at reasonable prices. We have been patiently waiting for it for years.
Now, Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena tells us that the draft national drug policy Bill will be ready within one week! He cannot be blamed for the inordinate delay in drafting the legal text as that task is beyond his control he has done his part. It is the Legal Draftsman`s Department (LDD) which should take the blame for this serious lapse.
Absurd excuses LDD worthies have trotted out for their failure to draft the Bill are ludicrous, to say the least. They seem to have taken the discerning public for morons the inordinate delay been attributed to the retirement of one official! But, today, they have undertaken to deliver within one week what they failed to for over 52 weeks? Why couldn`t they do so before the Health Minister`s intervention? How long would they have taken to do so but for Minister Sirisena`s warning that unless they expedited the drafting of the Bill, they would be severely dealt with. They also owe an explanation to the public as to how a file containing documents pertaining to the drug policy has gone missing.
There is no need to belabour the point that the proposed national drug policy is anathema to the powerful pharmaceutical industry which has many influential lawmakers, top bureaucrats, doctors et al in its pocket. So, one has reason to believe that the delay in drafting the Bill has been due to corruption and nothing else.
In an article we published in July 2008, Prof. Carlo Fonseka, quoting from Dr. Marcia Angell`s book, The truth about the drug companies: How they deceive us and what we can do about it, revealed the economic prowess of the drug industry. He said: `She [Dr. Angell] shows that from 1980 to 2003 the drug industry was far and away the most profitable business in the USA. For example, in 2002 the combined profits of the ten drug companies listed in Fortune 500 amounted to US $ 35.9 billion (The profits of all the other 490 businesses in Fortune 500 put together amounted to only US $ 33.7 billion.) So drug companies have enormous wealth. Wealth is power. And as Lord Acton truly said in 1887, power tends to corrupt.` Prof. Fonseka argues that corruption prevents the public from getting effective, safe, drugs of good quality at affordable prices. One cannot but agree with him!
Multinational giants work in mysterious ways. The LDD would not have dared sit on so vital a Bill for such a long time without the connivance of some powerful, corrupt politicians who once stepped in to revoke a Health Ministry directive that barred the sales reps of drug companies from meeting doctors in government hospitals during working hours.
The unfolding national drug policy drama has all the trappings of Beckett`s absurd, existentialist play, Waiting for Godot. We hope that the curtain will not fall on the much-awaited Bill while we are waiting for it. Anything is possible in this country where corruption is synonymous with governance and big money always takes precedence over the public interest.
Let doctors who have not sold their souls to the pharmaceutical Mafia, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) capable of bringing governments to their knees at will, other health workers and their unions, civil society organisations, the media and the general public throw their weight behind the Health Minister, who has put his head on the block, and bring pressure to bear on the government to implement the promised national drug policy!
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AnuD
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Joined: May 2005
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 20 May 2012 06:42:10 GMT Report for Abuse
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I read news reports from Sri Lanka that some american drug companies offering scholarships/grants etc., to doctors or to medical students.
that is all brainwashing and oblieghing people to companies. Here, they they throw money in conferances, give free trips, free samples Just to make Doctors oblighed.
I am pretty sure, Sri Lankan doctors, medical students ....get caught on those.
The best thing is Sri Lanka opening Generic pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and joining with such companies..
One way is opening a such a manufacturing zone just like the free trade zone.
Those companies should establish a name in comparison to other such countries in order to be well known.
Edited By - AnuD - 20 May 2012 06:43:07 GMT |
Magnum357
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 20 May 2012 14:01:47 GMT Report for Abuse
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National drug policy
Drug imports and sales can only be done by ruling party politicians and their thugs. Others will be caught and severely punished.
Thats the National drug policy. |
wick
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20 May 2012 14:29:22 GMT Report for Abuse
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Magnum357
This type of comment is not up to your status or standards, this type of comments usually made by |EEElamya or seethrough. I do not want you to fall into that category.
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SimpleMinds
Joined: Dec 2010
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20 May 2012 21:07:57 GMT Report for Abuse
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In a Country like ours, where are the Poor get poorer, it would be better to implement Professor Bibile Recommendations added with a Quality Certification Process.
The Quality Controlling itself may not solve the issues face with the Poor Patients and Families.
The Trade Mark Drugs may not be the right approach for us, though the unnecessary publicity to these News Items are intended to promote, PAY MORE FOR BETTER QUALITY. |
Magnum357
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21 May 2012 01:19:59 GMT Report for Abuse
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Wick
This type of comment is not up to your status or standards, this type of comments usually made by |EEElamya or seethrough. I do not want you to fall into that category
I admit I am being sarcastic here putting a pun on the term 'drugs BUT just reflect on what is actually happening in the country.
I will give you four examples, Duminda Silva who is well known for dabbling in drugs is free to do as he wishes with absolutely no repercussions, Mervyn Silva's thugs are free to dable in drugs and nothing happens to either his thugs or to him, Vinyl menik fellow in Ratnapura dabbles in drugs with the patronage of Ratnatilleka and Punchinilame and nothing happens to him, in Moratuwa Kudu Nihal who lives in the vicinity where I live now has a three storied building on Galle Road,4 houses 3-4 stories and continues his drug operations with the patronage of Jeewan Kumaratunga while the authorities turning a blind eye.
Yet we get to know of drug raids being conducted and certain drug dealers getting arrested, obviously very likely those are people who do not have ruling party political patronage.
So isn't there an indication that drug dealers with ruling party political connections are safe guarded by the government with no prosecutions and they are allowed to prosper at the expense of the gullible youth?
That's why I said it was the 'National drug policy'.
Edited By - Magnum357 - 21 May 2012 01:29:19 GMT |
Dubai101
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 21 May 2012 10:53:26 GMT Report for Abuse
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That's why I said it was the 'National drug policy'.
as per the facts given , its a good elaboration...
Drug policy should be implemented. how can any one stops MNC because they are the innovators. why does the government issue free medicines from such companies when there are alternatives available. of-course if the innovator product is the only brand available then the government has no choice but to give it through the hospitals as free. the issue is while having so much of alternatives still the ministry is purchasing the innovator brand to give as free medicines from the government hospitals. if a private patients been Rx an innovator brand then its up to the patient to choose what he needs to buy depending on his insurance or cash availability.
the corruption can take place at any level. our tender system is fully corrupted. form eh time of calling tenders till it closes its corrupt. even if they call for the lowest priced brand still the involved officer( MP) will ask to keep the margin for his commission. finally ends up getting a product of poor quality with a high price and destroying it at the end. what government must do is to purchase required medicines directly from the overseas supplier not from the local representative. |
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