The State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) which was under review by COPE has no mechanism to conduct quality checks and expiry dates on medicinal drugs that arrive at customs, raising serious concerns about the quality assurance aspect of drugs brought into the country, COPE Chairman Sunil Hadunnetti told the Daily News.

“This is a serious matter. The SPC gets to know about the lack of quality only later. They conduct quality checks only when complaints are received from the public regarding the quality of products. By then the items concerned have been distributed and used,” Handunnetti said elaborating on the issue. He claimed that the SPC and the State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation do not have proper coordination which has led to serious procurement issues.

Handunnetti said the lack of proper communication and coordination between the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) and the SPC has also led to a number of issues regarding purchasing and supplying medicine to the state healthcare system.

COPE called officials of the three institutions responsible for supply and distribution of drugs to the state health care system to investigate into the continuous drug shortages reported.

State hospitals have been facing a continuous medical drug shortages over the years. Last month, the government had to airlift a number of critical medical drugs which had been in short supply in state hospitals.

COPE has recommended to the institutions to devise mechanisms to conduct quality checks at the port of entries and proper coordination among SPC, SPMC and MSD.

(Dailynews.lk)