Drug price control - Opposition from companies? (2 items)

මිල පාලනයෙන් ඉහළ ප්‍රමිතියේ ඖෂධ හිඟ වීමේ අවදානමක්‌

ඖෂධ සඳහා මිල පාලනයක්‌ ඇතිකිරීමෙන් දේශීය වෙළෙඳ පොළ වෙත ඉතා උසස්‌ තත්ත්වයේ ඖෂධ වර්ග සහ නව නිපැයුම් පැමිණීම නතර වීමේ ඉඩකඩ ඇති විය හැකි බව ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඖෂධ කර්මාන්ත සංසදය සඳහන් කරයි.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට තරගකාරී වෙළෙඳ රටාවක්‌ ද විවෘත ආර්ථික ක්‍රමය සහිත වෙළෙඳ පොළක්‌ ද ඇති බැවින් මෙවැනි මිල පාලනයක්‌ තුළින් ඇතිවන අතුරු ඵල ඉතා හානිකර බවද එම සංසදය පවසයි.

මිල පාලනය තුළින් ඖෂධ මිල ගණන් ඉහළ යන අතරම, ප්‍රමිතියෙන් ඉහළ ඖෂධ වෙළෙඳපොළ තුළ හිඟවීමක්‌ ඇති විය හැකි බවද ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඖෂධ කර්මාන්ත සංසදය අනතුරු අඟවයි.

http://www.divaina.com/2011/12/16/news17.html


Scientific analysis on Senaka Bibile Drug Policy called

by Dilanthi Jayamanne

The Sri Lanka Society for Medical Laboratory Science yesterday urged the Health Ministry to conduct a scientific analysis prior to implementing the ‘Senaka Bibile Drug Policy.

President of the SL-SMLS Ravi Kumudesh said yesterday that there were several aspects to be looked into prior to implementing a policy that was formulated some years ago.

Kumudesh said that several health ministers had attempted to implement the policy through the years. Former Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva brought in a regulation forbidding reps of drug companies from meeting doctors in government hospital premises during working hours. However, the Minister had to withdraw the rule within 24 hours owing to external pressure from doctors and outside forces.

Research should be carried out on the ground situation assessing the environment for implementing a drug policy at all. There were several issues to be addressed prior to implementing the policy starting from people’s mentality regarding drugs prescribed in their generic name and those prescribed by their brand name. It had a psychological effect on patients and even their relatives. There was a general feeling that a drug written in its brand name was more effective than the one prescribed by its generic name. Medical teams and health officials should work towards changing the mind set before implementing the policy, he said.

He said mechanism should be implemented to control the drug price margins which could help importing companies to control drug prices. Branded drugs were retailed at times with mark up of 100 percent more than the cost of manufacturing them.

Kumudesh said that publicity should be given to implementing the drug policy after analysing those issues. The SL-SMLS was carrying out an analysis on the ground situation surrounding the implementation of a drug policy. SL-SMLS would hand over their findings to the Health Minister within the next ten days.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=41280