Sri Lanka National Pharmaceuticals Policy

The Sri Lanka National Pharmaceuticals Policy was established in the 1970s following the submission of a report by Dr S.A. Wickremasinghe and Prof. Seneka Bibile. It aimed at ensuring that people get good quality drugs at the lowest possible price and that doctors would prescribe the minimum required drugs to treat the patient's illness. It was a pioneer in the field of rational National pharmaceuticals policy.

At the time, pharmaceutical companies were making considerable money by selling drugs under their trade names, giving out biased information about the branded drugs as against those named generically. Doctors often prescribed branded drugs, which were far more expensive than generic drugs, which have the same efficacy.

The United Front Government of 1970 appointed the Wickremasinghe-Bibile commission of inquiry into this issue and it recommended the establishment a national policy and of a state body to regularise the trade.

In the 1970s Sri Lanka demonstrated that a state buying agency linked to a national formulary was a viable and powerful instrument for reducing drug costs without compromising quality, for saving foreign exchange, for rationalising drug usage and for supplying essential drugs at reasonable prices to the whole community. This was made possible by the formulation and implementation of an integrated national pharmaceutical policy.

A unique phenomenon about Sri Lanka's pharmaceuticals policy was that the entire programme was conceived, formulated, developed and implemented by Sri Lankan nationals without any form of external aid or assistance.

A careful selection of drugs is an essential prerequisite of a national pharmaceutical policy. In Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Health requested Prof. Seneka Bibile to look into his matter and he prepared the Ceylon Hospital Formulary (CHF) of about 630 drugs under their generic names. Subsequently the Ministry of Health established a National Formulary Committee (NFC), consisting of representatives from the public and private health sectors and the University Medical Schools, led by Bibile. It published Formulary Notes for doctors, keeping them updated on developments.

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Wikipedia