A drug used to protect cancer patients from infection during chemotherapy is being sold for more than Rs. 25,000 on the black market, a doctors’ trade union has alleged, as a national shortage enters its second month.
Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa, a specialist and chairman of the Doctors’ Trade Union Alliance for Medical and Civil Rights, told the Daily Mirror that the medicine — sold under brand names including Neup, Neupogen, GCadF and Filgrastim — normally costs around Rs. 900. “Even at prices exceeding Rs. 25,000, the medicine is extremely difficult to find,” he said.
The drug stimulates white blood cell production and strengthens the immune system, protecting patients undergoing chemotherapy, including children, from infection.
Stock held over labelling
Dr. Sanjeewa said nearly 100,000 units are sitting in warehouses because the Medical Supplies Division has refused to accept them over an issue with the labelling of the containers.
He alleged that the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation had earlier granted the importing company permission to bring in the medicine without that particular label, acting on instructions from the National Medicines Regulatory Authority on labelling requirements. Clearer instructions at the outset would have avoided the situation, he argued.
That account overlaps with, but is not identical to, the explanation Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa gave Parliament on Thursday. The Minister said a consignment of 160,000 vials delivered on 28 July had to be rejected because prefilled syringes did not carry NMRA-required labels, and that the stock could not be released without them. He put the figure at 160,000 vials; Dr. Sanjeewa refers to nearly 100,000 units held in warehouses. Neither figure has been independently confirmed.
Scale of the shortage
Around 25,000 patients need the medicine each month, according to Dr. Sanjeewa, and more than 75,000 could struggle to obtain it over the next three months if supplies are not restored. He said several other categories of cancer medicine are also running short in both state and private hospitals.
He urged the Health Ministry, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Blood Diseases to intervene and have the held stocks assessed and released, subject to safety and regulatory requirements.
The Minister told Parliament on Thursday that the shortage was temporary and should be resolved within about a week. Patients at Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama reported last week that the shortage was delaying chemotherapy.
No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own account of the union’s allegations as of early Sunday.
