A doctors’ association says roughly 160,000 vials of a life-saving cancer drug are being held at Medical Supplies Division stores because of a defect on the reverse side of the product label, and has called on the Health Minister to convene an emergency meeting to release them.
The Medical and Civil Rights Professional Association of Doctors (MCPA) blamed what it called an institutional coordination breakdown between the National Medicines Regulatory Authority and the MSD, Ada Derana reported.
What the dispute is actually about
The association’s account is the most specific yet published. All the required information is correctly printed on the individual boxes, it said — the front label, the manufacturing date, the expiry date, and verified product quality indicated on the syringes. The MSD has refused to accept the stock over an administrative issue concerning the reverse side of the label alone.
If the consignment is returned for re-labelling, the association said, it would take at least three months for the shipment to come back to Sri Lanka. Around 25,000 patients need the drug each month to restore immunity after chemotherapy, so nearly 75,000 patients could be exposed over that period.
The number now matches the Minister’s
The 160,000 figure resolves a discrepancy this site flagged as unconfirmed a week ago. Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told Parliament that a consignment of 160,000 vials of Filgrastim delivered on 28 July had been rejected because the prefilled syringes did not carry NMRA-required labels. A doctors’ union chairman put the held stock at nearly 100,000 units on August 22. The MCPA now gives the same 160,000 as the Minister.
Ada Derana did not name the drug. The vial count, the labelling cause and the Rs. 900 list price all match the Filgrastim consignment the Minister described, and the Daily Mirror reported on August 26 that he had acknowledged the shortage was still unresolved and that the MSD was not supplying the drug to hospitals at all.
The black market
A drug with a standard value of about Rs. 900 is selling for more than Rs. 25,000, the association said, adding that it is unavailable even at that price. Patients at Apeksha Hospital reported delayed chemotherapy this month.
The association asked the Minister to meet health officials, oncologists and haematologists urgently and release the stock.
