Nanotechnology drug manufacturing plant in Payagala

Monday, 5 February 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka, which is aiming to locally manufacture 90% of the medicine needed by the country, launched a project to construct a facility for manufacturing cancer drugs using nanotechnology.

Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne on 2 February laid the foundation stone for a nanotechnology drug manufacturing plant in the Malegoda area of Payagala.

The project under the program to locally produce drugs is being implemented under the supervision of the Health Ministry and State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC). It is a joint investment of Rs. 1.4 billion by two Indian companies.

The drug manufacturing complex is to be built on 15 acres of land and will provide employment to 500 unemployed youth in the Kalutara District.

The agreement to build the manufacturing facility was signed yesterday in Kalutara. SPMC Chairman Dr. Sayura Samarasundera and India’s SPAL Ltd. Chairman Vijay Prakash signed the agreement.

Speaking at the occasion, Minister Senaratne said the construction would cost more than Rs. 1 billion. The Minister said that after he reduced the prices of 48 essential drugs, he decided to regulate the prices of expensive drugs and the regulation of the prices of cancer drugs will be announced soon.

He said the minimum price of a cancer drug was around Rs. 150,000 and therefore the Government decided to locally manufacture the cancer drugs needed by patients.

The Minister said that about 40 drug companies have signed agreements with the SPMC to manufacture pharmaceutical products.

According to these agreements, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities have been opened in Kandy and Horana and production at these facilities has already commenced.

“We are constructing a pharmaceutical manufacturing complex at Welipenna in Kalutara. There will be 19 pharmaceutical plants in that complex,” he said.

He said that once the new facility of the SPMC was completed, it would also increase the production capacity to four billion units of tablets and capsules.