Sri Lanka looks at increasing local pharmaceutical production to conserve foreign reserves
The government of Sri Lanka is currently exploring avenues for import substitution with focusing on increasing the local production process.
This was revealed by Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa recently when he said that conserving foreign reserves will be focused through increasing domestic production.
He made this observation during the market launch of two locally manufactured drugs at the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) facility in Ratmalana.
Accordingly, Tramadol, a pain medicine, and Levothyroxine, a thyroid medicine were launched at the event.
According to statistics, 9.8 million capsules of Tramadol 50 mg and about 98 million tablets of 50 mg of Levothyroxine are used annually in Sri Lanka and the latest SPMC endeavour is to result in the annual savings of Rs. 88 million used to import the two pharmaceuticals.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is focused on expanding it’s local pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry. The authorities have even declared a dedicated pharma zone in the country to promote pharmaceutical manufacturing in Sri Lanka. It is in this backdrop that the government has expanded its local production line by adding two new pharmaceuticals to the list of locally manufactured drugs. The government has also introduced many incentives to foreign businesses/investors to invest in Sri Lanka’s pharmaceuticals industry. The strong bilateral and trade ties enjoyed by Sri Lanka will further boost the local pharma manufacturing industry. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore explore the expanding opportunities in Sri Lanka’s pharmaceuticals manufacturing industry.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/13082021/Z_1 |