Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has told Parliament that a shortage of the cancer drug Filgrastim is temporary and should be resolved within about a week, after the issue was raised on Thursday by Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam.
The exchange followed reports from patients at Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama that shortages of the drug were delaying chemotherapy. Filgrastim stimulates white blood cell production and is used in chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation and other cancer treatments.
Why the stock was withheld
The Minister said the shortage arose after a consignment of 160,000 vials delivered on July 28, 2026 — enough for roughly six months — had to be rejected for failing to meet National Medicines Regulatory Authority specifications. The prefilled syringes did not carry the labels the NMRA requires.
He said the shortage was not caused by delay on the part of either the Health Ministry or the supplier, and that the Medical Supplies Division placed the order for the 2026 requirement in January 2025, more than nine months in advance.
The Ministry has asked the supplier to airfreight additional stock to meet immediate demand, and has also asked the supplier awarded the 2027 contract to release stocks as soon as possible. “We cannot release the existing stocks without the labels required under NMRA specifications,” the Minister said.
Discussions are under way on whether the rejected stock could be used despite the missing labels, based on recommendations from the College of Oncologists and the College of Haematologists. Daily Mirror reported the Minister as saying relabelling the rejected stock would take at least six weeks.
Scale of the requirement
Sri Lanka’s annual requirement is around 300,000 vials, or roughly 900 a day. Apeksha Hospital alone needs about 325 vials daily, amounting to some 9,750 a month.
Rasamanickam said patients had reported paying between Rs. 17,000 and Rs. 23,000 for a Filgrastim injection at private pharmacies, with Neupogen selling for between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 30,000 in some areas. “For families already facing the enormous financial and emotional burden of cancer treatment, being forced to purchase an essential medicine at such prices is unacceptable,” he said.
According to Daily FT, the MP said the Minister had indicated procurement through the regular process could take at least six weeks, and that a special medical team had been set up. Rasamanickam said hospitals in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, including Jaffna, could also be affected, and called for a long-term supply mechanism.
