The imposition of the ban was consequent on the new scheme of prescribing drugs by generic names. Notwithstanding the real motives of the government, the ban was a real godsend for the public waiting in winding queues, as it prevented doctors from wasting time to entertain smartly clad girls and boys just out of school imparting pharmaceutical lessons to the medical fraternity. Predictably, following the ban doctors developed withdrawal symptoms of sorts and the pharmaceutical Mafia flew into a fit of rage. Easy money like narcotics is habit forming!

So, they joined forces and made a concerted effort to have the ban lifted. The move to oust Minister of Health Nimal Siripala de Silva is considered a part of their campaign to remove obstacles in their path and facilitate the exploitation of the poor. Some medical reps had the gumption to boast openly that the ouster of the Health Minister was only a matter of time! Together docs and reps have won the first bout and the Health Minister is licking his wounds. After his return from abroad, he will have no alternative but to lift the ban, which President Mahinda Rajapaksa has suspended, suspension being a face-saving euphemism for subsequent withdrawal/cancellation in this country.

Reasons given for the suspension of the ban are ludicrous, to say the least. The Health Ministry says a final decision will be made following further discussions on a number of issues. Why couldn’t the government discuss them before slapping the ban? Whom is it trying to fool?

Money talks! Drug companies have many doctors in their pocket. Of the 500 Fortune Companies, ten are pharmaceutical ventures but the profits they make are far in excess of those made by the other 490! Given the huge profits it makes, the pharmaceutical industry has a lot of funds to spare to buy allegiance. They lavish money on doctors and employ them as hit men to target the sick. Among the bribes showered on the medical fraternity are foreign trips, parties, sponsorships for professional and social events, commissions and hampers.

Health Secretary Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage has said, as we reported yesterday, doctors had requested that they be allowed to see the medical reps at least during the lunch break. Why are they so desperate? GMOA Secretary Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya has pointed out that there are no drug information centres in this country, whereas other countries have them even at the provincial level. Therefore, he says, doctors are unable to ascertain information about drugs. Why did the good doctors let grass grow under their feet? How have they managed without those vital facilities all these years? They should have demanded them earlier. Dr. Padeniya says doctors have had to rely on medical reps to know their drugs! And how reliable is the information they elicit from those market sources on brand drugs? Drug companies will try to market their products to hell with patients. Some years ago we exposed a racket where a large stock of cough syrup well past the shelf life was sold without even registration. A senior doctor alerted us that it could even cause death in some cases. The syrup was hastily withdrawn from the market after our report and later it was registered surreptitiously. No doctors union took up the matter for obvious reasons.

However, the government which makes a show of its consideration towards the sick cannot absolve itself of the blame for the absence of drug information centres. It ought to provide such facilities without further delay for two reasons. One is that doctors really need them and the other is those who are averse to the prescription of generic drugs shouldn’t be provided with an excuse to derail the new scheme.

Dr. Padeniya has said the GMOA has information that two powerful politicians are going to set up a pharmaceutical company. The GMOA has stopped short of naming the politicians concerned. Who are they? Is the new scheme of prescribing drugs aimed at helping that company? We already have a serious problem because of the involvement of a minister’s brother in the rice trade. Minister of Agriculture Maithripala Sirisena’s brother is one of the biggest rice mill owners in the country. And the latter is accused of manipulating the rice market. Minister Sirisena has tried to discount the impact of his brother’s business on the market. He has asked his critics whether it is only his brother’s rice the people eat for prices to go up so steeply. Whether or not the people eat, his brother’s rice, a mill owner backed by a ministerial brother is capable of wonder in this country as regards the purchase of paddy and hoarding. This has led to a serious conflict of interest which militates against the principle of good governance. Minister Sirisena has no moral right to hold the portfolio of agriculture so long as his brother is in the rice business. He is lucky that he is in this country, where anything goes in politics. Is the pharmaceutical trade heading in the same direction as the rice market? And will the sick find themselves in a far worse predicament?

What the suspension of the ban at issue signifies is the pusillanimity of a slapdash government incapable of proactive thinking and proper planning. It plunges feet first into projects it cannot sustain. It is, to its credit, thrashing daylight out of the Tigers but it cannot say boo to a goose when it comes to the sordid operations by commercial vultures seeking to turn the hungry and the sick into carrion. One shouldn’t be surprised even if the new scheme of prescribing drugs happens to be abandoned sooner or later.