Sri Lanka Holds Conference on Fake Drugs

The Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry (SLCPI) joined with the U.S. Embassy, the American Chamber of Commerce and other entities to host the first of four workshops on "Protecting Sri Lankan Families from counterfeit drugs," according to the Daily Mirror. This initial workshop was held on October 17 in Colombo.

The news source reports that the focus of the event was the education of pharmacy owners, pharmacists, students, police, customs officials and the general public about the risks and dangers posed to everyone by the counterfeit drug trade.

The event was primarily funded by the U.S. Department of State but also received additional funding from the SLCPI and the U.S. Embassy.

A number of prominent figures were slated to attend and speak at the event including Sri Lanka's Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena, Ambassador of the United States of America Patricia Butenis and Stuart Chapman, the vice president of SLCPI.

Sri Lanka's Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said that Sri Lanka will take strict legal measures against the fake drug trade to protect the public and form a special task force to carry out random checks at pharmacies for counterfeit drugs in his keynote address "Protecting Sri Lankan Families from Counterfeit Drugs."  

"One of the biggest problems I encountered was the flooding of the local market with low quality counterfeit drugs. Even the Government Hospitals were supplied with low quality, probably counterfeit drugs. … the counterfeiting of medicinal products must be treated as a special issue because it puts people’s health at risk. It is timely that we adopt measures taken by developed countries to stop the manufacture and marketing of counterfeit drugs,” Minister Sirisena stressed.  

“What is the advice a government could give the patients or their families? One should remember that most of the patients take the word of medical Officers for granted without a hum, as the truth," he added.

Three more workshops are planned for Galle, Kandy and Jaffna in the upcoming months, according to the Colombo Page.