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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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Crack-down on pharmacies, dealers in spurious drugs by Don Asoka Wijewardena The government will crack down on all pharmacies and authorised dealers engaged in the sale of spurious drugs and employ unqualified pharmacists. The owners and dealers of such pharmacies will be prosecuted and their licences cancelled under the Cosmetics, Drugs and Devices Act (CDDA), said Managing Director, State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC), Prof. K.U. Kamalgoda, in an interview with the "Sunday Observer". Prof. Kamalgoda said that there had been a serious dearth of qualified pharmacists in the country. Currently there was a shortage of 6000-7000 pharmacists and to overcome it the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) had commenced a 2-year course on pharmacology. About 5000-6000 students were being trained after which they would be absorbed to the cadre as qualified pharmacists. Regarding the price reduction on the pharmaceuticals, he explained that with effect from August 1, approximately 600 kinds of pharmaceuticals imported by the SPC would be sold 5 per cent less than the current prices thereby incurring a loss of about Rs 20 million to the corporation. "All pharmaceutical imports to the country after August 1, will be priced sans the National Security Levy (NSL) of 6.5 per cent and this would be a sigh of relief for the people," he said. Sunethra Ranasingha, Chairman (SPC), said that all the pharmaceuticals were exempted from the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the SPC had been importing drugs on their generic names, especially from India. She said that the SPC was a profit-making organisation with highly sophisticated laboratory facilities to conduct quality assurance tests on imported drugs before releasing them to the market. "Our prices are quite low and we want to ensure that the people get the best quality drugs. I am certain that people are happy about the price reduction and the steps taken by the UNF government in that connection," said the chairman. According to the Deputy General Manager (Marketing) SPC, E.F.M. Samuel, the SPC has 13 sales outlets, 44 distributors, 41 franchise shops and 12 authorised dealers. The total sales from Osusala outlets amount to Rs 700 million, Rs. 4 billion from hospital supplies and Rs 1.5 million from the private sector, annually. |
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