Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said he expected much more pressure than what he received from the capitalist class and drug companies when he reduced prices of 48 drugs.
According, to Senaratne, he had received less pressure than he expected from them. Some have lost commissions due to positive decision made on drugs. Annually, Sri Lanka import Rs. 60 billion worth drugs. In future a courrier service will be introduced to transport drugs. He was addressing the SPC Delaers’ Convention held in Colombo recently.
The minister said that during the previous regime, free health service could not be delivered since priority was given to ethanol culture.
“The National Drug Policy was not introduced and relevant documents went missing. But now that culture was changed,” he said, that culture has been change. Some media publish anything told by anyone tarnishing people’s images, and it should be stopped. The change is not complete. Now the public can obtain any information on any state institution through the Right to Information Act, he added.