Certain doctors at the Maharagama Cancer Hospital are not prescribing this particular vaccine to the patients.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne told a meeting of pharmacists of the National Drug Regulatory Authority that this would be looked into.
He also said the health ministry would provide all cancer drugs to patients free of charge, for which the prices should come down further.
The courts on June 22 gave a ruling, ending A. Baur and Company’s monopoly to import this particular vaccine, trastuzumab.
The company had sold the vaccine at a very high price of Rs. 250,000 for many years to earn improper profits running into billions of rupees, it has come to light.
It had gone to courts, challenging the government’s having called for tenders to buy this same vaccine at only Rs. 90,000, and obtained an injunction preventing the vaccine from being issued to the Cancer Hospital.
Later, the court removed the injunction, and the government is now able to buy this drug at a very low price and save around Rs. 500 million a year.
However, the minister is worried by the refusal of this vaccine imported from Russia by doctors who are thriving due to the drug mafia.
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