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The Health Ministry instructed the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) to recall all drugs withheld by hospitals following the scandal surrounding injection phials with pieces of glass and substance particles.
Health Ministry sources said yesterday (19) that Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has already issued instructions to SPC Managing Director Dinusha Dassanayaka to take immediate steps and recall all drugs manufactured by five Indian drug companies and get the Indian companies to reimburse within three months the money spent on purchasing them.
The Minister has ordered the National Drug Authority to issue circulars to all government hospitals to hand over the withheld drugs with immediate effect. The five Indian suppliers would be black listed for a two-year period and would have to submit a Good Medical Product (GMP) report to the Sri Lankan Health Ministry, sources said. The Ministry also warned that it would not renew drug registrations of the five manufacturers till the GMP report is submitted.
The move will also affect private hospitals and pharmacies as the injections and drugs would be banned from being used in Sri Lanka. Those found guilty of storing, selling, or prescribing these drugs to patients would be severely punished. The Health Ministry would deploy a team to assist the five drug manufacturers to prepare their GMP for which the manufacturers would have to foot the bill for the total expenditure.
