Background
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.
Read more about this topic: Sri Lanka National Pharmaceuticals Policy
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