The ministry says the lives of the cancer patients are in danger due to certain doctors working in cohort with a mafia of pharmaceutical firms. 

Director general of health services Dr. Palitha Mahipala said the doctors have been asked to come to the ministry this week to discuss the matter.

The Drug Regulatory Authority has confirmed the quality of trastuzumab, being used in the treatment of breast cancer and imported from Russia.

There is a major saving of the money that had previously gone to buy the drug at high prices, said the ministry.

The four doctors who refuse to prescribe the drug say that although the Russian drug is cheaper, it is being used only in former Russian Federation countries Ukraine and Belorussia.

Switzerland’s Hoffman La Roche Ltd. and Sri Lanka’s A. Baur and Company had previously enjoyed the monopoly of importing this vaccine, which they had priced at Rs. 250,000 per vial.

Related articles:
Baur Company’s ghosts at Cancer Hospital
Probe into doctors at cancer hospital!
End claimed to cancer drug monopoly (video)
Drug racket preying on cancer patients
Cancer drugs are costly due to Baur’s monopoly!