The Parliamentary Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) has been informed of discrepancies in the purchase of medicines during the tenure of Keheliya Rambukwella as the Minister of Health.
Officials from the health sector, including the National Medicine Regulatory Authority of Sri Lanka (NMRA), and Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena participated in the meeting.
During the meeting, the NMRA Chairman Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama and NMRA CEO Saveen Semage confirmed that the documents issued by the previous Board on the medicines did not consist of any technical documents.
Also speaking, the Director General of Health Services, Dr. Asela Gunawardena said that he had not attended the Board meeting as he had an issue with the transparency of the process.
“I received a file mentioning this special path to purchase medicines. I sent a note to the Health Ministry Secretary not to grant permission without the relevant documents. I gave my recommendations on the matter, which is the utmost I can do in this situation,” he said.
NMRA board member Dr.Pradeep Kumarasinghe De Silva revealed that a sudden board meeting had been planned without their knowledge prior to a planned dinner for the NMRA staff, during which the medicine purchase was raised.
“At the end of the board meeting, a document was submitted with several medicines, seeking approval. When inquired why this isn’t being discussed, we were informed it cannot be discussed and that Cabinet approval has been granted for the list of medicines. The matter was also not discussed,” he said.
Prof. Priyadarshani Galappaththi, a member of the experts’ committee appointed to probe incidents of Anaphylaxis to drugs in healthcare institutes in 2023, said the medicines evaluation committee had been sent a list containing 300 medicines for approval.
“The list was sent for waiver of registration. As the medicines evaluation committee, we objected to the list and against granting approval. But, we were informed that it contained essential medicines and if not approved, could result in a shortage of medicines in Sri Lanka,” she said.
Prof. Priyadarshani Galappaththi revealed that some medicines had been approved to be purchased by companies that had been previously blacklisted.
The COPE committee was informed that at the time, Professor S. D. Jayaratne was the head of the NMRA, Dr. Vijith Gunasekera was the CEO, and Keheliya Rambukwella was the Minister of Health. (Newswire)
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