Following the initial article published in the Daily FT on 21 May titled ‘Pharmaceutical authority dabbling with people’s lives for individual gain,’ (available online at https://www.ft.lk/opinion/Pharmaceutical-authority-dabbling-with-peoples-lives-for-individual-gains/14-718231) the National Chamber of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of Sri Lanka (NCPM) wrote to the Daily FT, on what it claimed was a distorted article with false content, “and even misleading the general public causing damage to the Government vision of ‘making Sri Lanka a medicinally self-sufficient nation’”.

The NCPM in its letter signed by its President, Dr. Lohitha Samarawikrema, intimates there is an additional cost of about 20% when manufacturing a product in Sri Lanka compared to imports. He adds that a firm decision to go ahead was taken, highlighting this additional cost, corroborating the existence of SPMC joint ventures. 

The NCPM letter adds the initiative was implemented according to the government mandate considering where the SPMC had priority and first choice of refusal of supply as a State-owned organisation. When the Government’s initial buyback agreement of 2014 was renewed in 2019 for a further five years with 12 local companies, some of the companies had “fraudulently increased their quantities and the number of products with no transparent criteria,” the letter adds.

“SPMC and Joint Venture companies are not importing any finished products from India or any other country as stated. This was a proven fact during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic when the imports were limited and all local manufacturers worked tirelessly to cater the national need instantly,” the NCPM letter states. Joint Venture partners are constantly monitored for highest quality by SPMC, it adds.

In contrast to its above statement, the NCPM says that the buyback agreement of 2014 with local manufacturers lapsed in 2019, and instead of being in financial difficulty, local producers must have surely recovered their investments. The SPMC together with its joint venture partners have taken on the challenge to close the capacity gap of 85% of total requirement, and all manufacturers can join hands for this process, the NCPM says.

The Daily FT in its initial article as with this edition also features details, documents and views shared by members of the Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industries, which features a number of listed companies. In this edition the focus fell on findings published by the Auditor General.

Auditor General dissects SPMC joint ventures, but to what end?