COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has suspended a batch of the cancer-treatment drug filgrastim after discovering that individual vials in an imported consignment carried no identifying information, Deputy Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr Hansaka Wijemuni said.
The suspension has resulted in temporary supply shortages in both public and private hospitals, prompting the ministry to direct hospitals to obtain the essential medicine through local purchases from private suppliers, he said.
Speaking to the media, Dr Wijemuni said the outer packaging of the imported consignment contained the required information, but the individual vials were found to be completely blank.
“This is a serious defect, and the ministry immediately suspended the batch,” he said, adding that the decision was taken as a precaution to protect patients.
The suspension subsequently created supply gaps and triggered concerns and debate over the availability of filgrastim, which is widely used to prevent or lower the risk of severe infections and fevers in patients taking cancer medicines that lower white blood cell counts
Dr Wijemuni said the ministry had instructed regional hospitals, including the Maharagama Cancer Hospital, to urgently procure the drug from private-sector suppliers to address the shortage, adding private distributors were now supplying filgrastim to hospitals, and the situation is gradually returning to normal, he said.
He said the government had not suffered any financial loss as a result of the incident, noting that the company responsible for the defective consignment would be required to bear full responsibility for any losses arising from it.
Dr Wijemuni acknowledged that Sri Lanka’s existing pharmaceutical procurement system is complex and can be slow to respond to urgent requirements.
He said the Health Ministry, with the support of the Asian Development Bank, plans to introduce new guidelines and modernize procurement procedures within the next month to enable the authorities to respond more quickly to critical medicine shortages.
Sri Lanka requires approximately 25,000 vials of filgrastim each month to treat cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, recovering from bone marrow transplants, or suffering from chronic neutropenia – low white blood cell court.
–ENCL
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