Sri Lanka will have to pay the full cost of vaccines used in its national immunisation programme after being reclassified as an upper-middle-income country, losing concessions it had relied on for procurement.
A health official told the Daily Mirror that the country previously received certain vaccines on concessionary terms but would now have to pay for its whole requirement. To avoid any disruption, the Health Ministry is seeking to partner with UNICEF for the purchases.
“We will procure all the vaccines required under the national immunisation programme through UNICEF. We have to pay for all,” the official said. Asked what the additional cost would be, he said it was still being estimated.
“We cannot compromise the immunisation programme no matter what. Therefore, we make sure that purchases are made in time,” he said. An operational agreement is expected to be signed shortly.
The reclassification behind it
The World Bank moved Sri Lanka to the upper-middle-income category in its annual country income classifications released on 1 July. The exercise assesses 218 economies on gross national income per capita using the Bank’s Atlas methodology, and Sri Lanka was one of five countries to move up from the lower-middle-income group.
The classification is not merely descriptive. It governs which countries can access concessional loans, grants and discounted supply arrangements, so a move up the scale withdraws terms that were previously available. The vaccine concessions are among the first concrete costs of the upgrade to be identified publicly.
The official did not say which vaccines were affected or what share of the programme had been covered on concessionary terms, and no figure has yet been put on the additional annual cost.
Medicines procurement under review too
The ministry is also planning to buy medicines through a United Nations procurement route, given shortages of certain drugs. The UNDP’s Bureau for Management Services maintains long-term agreements with manufacturers and wholesalers covering adult antiretrovirals, first-line anti-tuberculosis medicines for adults and children, malaria medicines, and treatments for sexually transmitted infections, opportunistic infections and hepatitis B and C.
According to the official, Sri Lanka currently has about 80 per cent of its medicinal drugs secured, but some oncology products are in short supply — an echo of the procurement delays reported in cancer care this month.
No other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had reported the vaccine procurement change as of Saturday evening.
