Features

Local manufacturing or local packing of drugs in Sri Lanka?

Published

5 years ago

2021/01/1

By Prof. O.A.Ileperuma

Recently, there has been much hype about drug manufacturing in Sri Lanka with State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) claiming to commence the production of flucloxacillin, in Sri Lanka. This adds to the list of drugs which the SPMC claims to “manufacture” locally along with common drugs like paracetamol and antibiotics like ampicillin. The use of the term manufacturing is a misnomer since what is actually done is getting the drug powders from abroad including the hard gelatin capsule and packing them here. Hence a more appropriate classification is “Packed in Sri Lanka”.

While I am not trying to belittle what SPMC is doing, the real achievement would be to actually manufacture these drugs from raw materials instead of importing the already prepared drug. Chemical synthesis is the key to this and very often these can be carried out on a small to medium scale if proper equipment can be imported. We can tap the unemployed graduates with a chemistry background and employ them for a useful purpose. Carrying out the synthesis even on a small scale many times is possible with the availability of abundant manpower.

We spend nearly Rs. 20-30 billion annually on importing pharmaceuticals and if surgical items are included, this increases to around Rs. 50 billion. It is pertinent to ask why simple formulations like creams, ointments and syrups cannot be made in Sri Lanka by importing their raw materials. The authorities should ban or restrict the importation of the finished products such as these and also instruct the private pharmaceutical companies to produce them locally.

Sri Lanka lags behind India, Pakistan and even Bangladesh in the pharmaceutical industry. We simply import the raw materials in the form of chemicals and do the mixing and pressing to produce tablets or capsules here. No attempts are made to at least to partially carry out some manufacturing involving chemical synthesis. Paracetamol tablets where the active component is chemically acetaminophen can be easily made from simple compounds like aminophenol and acetic anhydride which can be carried out even in a school laboratory. The other ingredients in a paracetamol tablet are inert ingredients such as starch, potassium sorbate, talc and stearic acid. Out of these, some like starch and stearic acid can be locally made. What the SPMC is doing is to actually import all these chemicals and press them into tablets here. If at least part synthesis of some of these chemicals can be done here, it will help to create employment for unemployed youth and also reduce the price of drugs.

Nearly 30 years ago, I wrote to the then Chairman of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation about the possibility to make the anticancer drug, cisplatin, starting from basic raw materials. I have prepared this compound many times in the past for my research both here and abroad but as expected I did not even receive a reply. Had they accepted my proposal, this drug could have been produced for one-fourth the price of the imported drug.

What is even more hilarious is that saline which is a solution of common salt in water is still been imported although there is some information that this will soon be locally produced. We heard about a proposal to build a saline factory at Padukka in 2015 which promised to make the product available from 2017. I can remember that on August 19th of this year, State minister for Pharmaceutical production telling the media that local saline production will start before the end of the year. Even at the end of the year there is no sign of local saline Now another company is planning to manufacture saline in 2021 at Koggala and I hope the same fate will not happen to this venture as in 2015. Even a 1% sodium chloride (common salt) solution used as a nasal spray is imported from Bangladesh! Are our people in charge of manufacturing drugs incapable of dissolving common salt in water? Or else, maybe they are scared of the powerful lobby of pharmaceutical importers who are financially benefited by importing these simple products like saline and nasal drops.

Most of the antibiotic injections supposedly “manufactured” in Sri Lanka are imported products and only filling them into vials is done in Sri Lanka. The process for the manufacture of antibiotics involves fermentation where specific microorganisms are grown in large containers in a liquid growth medium. Surely, there are enough microbiologists in Sri Lanka capable of carrying out these processes which will enable us to produce the antibiotics we need.

We need to explore the types of raw materials we import and study their substitution with local products. For instance, calcium carbonate which is used to treat osteoporosis and also as an inert additive in many tablets can be easily manufactured in Sri Lanka. We have a good quality calcite deposit at Balangoda and this can be used to prepare precipitated calcium carbonate required for the drug industry. Similarly, magnesium carbonate deposit found in Wellawaya or even dolomite can be used to prepare magnesium carbonate which is used in various antacids and also can be used to produce magnesium hydroxide popularly known as milk of magnesia and used as a laxative.

Indian drug industry imports around 70 per cent of their total bulk drugs from China. Last year, country’s pharmaceutical industries imported 2.4 billion US dollars’ worth of Chinese drugs and intermediate raw material chemicals. Recently the Indian Government has requested the drug industry to start manufacturing 38 essential chemicals required for the drug industry in India. What is imported to Sri Lanka are the finished products from the Indian drug companies. The same is true of the drugs we import from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The question arises as to why we cannot manufacture all drugs locally from raw materials imported from China since what Indian companies do is to import the raw materials from China, make the drugs and sell the finished products to Sri Lanka.

State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) was established in 1971 and Prof. Senaka Bibile was its first chairman. It had the mandate to import drugs for use in hospitals. In 1987, State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation was established for the manufacture of drugs and it has succeeded in manufacturing about 50 drugs. This is far less compared to about 350 varieties of drugs currently imported to Sri Lanka. Why you need two corporations to deal with pharmaceuticals is another question. Perhaps the Government wanted to create two Chairman posts just to satisfy the need to please political supporters. I believe that it is beneficial to merge these two corporations and work towards the common goal of providing all drugs needed for Sri Lanka.

What we need is an expert panel of scientists who have no vested personal interests or political ambitions, and Sri Lankan expatriates who have experience in drug manufacturing to formulate a national action plan to manufacture drugs required for Sri Lanka. Concurrently, the production of chemicals required for drug formulations is an urgent necessity where chemists play a major role.

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Features

Maduro abduction marks dangerous aggravation of ‘world disorder’

Published

21 hours ago

2026/01/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Venezuelan President Maduro being taken to a court in New York

The abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by US special forces on January 3rd and his coercive conveying to the US to stand trial over a number of allegations leveled against him by the Trump administration marks a dangerous degeneration of prevailing ‘world disorder’. While some cardinal principles in International Law have been blatantly violated by the US in the course of the operation the fallout for the world from the exceptionally sensational VVIP abduction could be grave.

Although controversial US military interventions the world over are not ‘news’ any longer, the abduction and hustling away of a head of government, seen as an enemy of the US, to stand trial on the latter soil amounts to a heavy-handed and arrogant rejection of the foundational principles of international law and order. It would seem, for instance, that the concept of national sovereignty is no longer applicable to the way in which the world’s foremost powers relate to the rest of the international community. Might is indeed right for the likes of the US and the Trump administration in particular is adamant in driving this point home to the world.

Chief spokesmen for the Trump administration have been at pains to point out that the abduction is not at variance with national security related provisions of the US Constitution. These provisions apparently bestow on the US President wide powers to protect US security and stability through courses of action that are seen as essential to further these ends but the fact is that International Law has been brazenly violated in the process in the Venezuelan case.

To be sure, this is not the first occasion on which a head of government has been abducted by US special forces in post-World War Two times and made to stand trial in the US, since such a development occurred in Panama in 1989, but the consequences for the world could be doubly grave as a result of such actions, considering the mounting ‘disorder’ confronting the world community.

Those sections opposed to the Maduro abduction in the US would do well to from now on seek ways of reconciling national security-related provisions in the US Constitution with the country’s wider international commitment to uphold international peace and law and order. No ambiguities could be permitted on this score.

While the arbitrary military action undertaken by the US to further its narrow interests at whatever cost calls for criticism, it would be only fair to point out that the US is not the only big power which has thus dangerously eroded the authority of International Law in recent times. Russia, for example, did just that when it violated the sovereignty of Ukraine by invading it two or more years ago on some nebulous, unconvincing grounds. Consequently, the Ukraine crisis too poses a grave threat to international peace.

It is relevant to mention in this connection that authoritarian rulers who hope to rule their countries in perpetuity as it were, usually end up, sooner rather than later, being a blight on their people. This is on account of the fact that they prove a major obstacle to the implementation of the democratic process which alone holds out the promise of the progressive empowerment of the people, whereas authoritarian rulers prefer to rule with an iron fist with a fixation about self-empowerment.

Nevertheless, regime-change, wherever it may occur, is a matter for the public concerned. In a functional democracy, it is the people, and the people only, who ‘make or break’ governments. From this viewpoint, Russia and Venezuela are most lacking. But externally induced, militarily mediated change is a gross abnormality in the world of democracy, which deserves decrying.

By way of damage control, the US could take the initiative to ensure that the democratic process, read as the full empowerment of ordinary people, takes hold in Venezuela. In this manner the US could help in stemming some of the destructive fallout from its abduction operation. Any attempts by the US to take possession of the national wealth of Venezuela at this juncture are bound to earn for it the condemnation of democratic opinion the world over.

Likewise, the US needs to exert all its influence to ensure that the rights of ordinary Ukrainians are protected. It will need to ensure this while exploring ways of stopping further incursions into Ukrainian territory by Russia’s invading forces. It will need to do this in collaboration with the EU which is putting its best foot forward to end the Ukraine blood-letting.

Meanwhile, the repercussions that the Maduro abduction could have on the global South would need to be watched with some concern by the international community. Here too the EU could prove a positive influence since it is doubtful whether the UN would be enabled by the big powers to carry out the responsibilities that devolve on it with the required effectiveness.

What needs to be specifically watched is the ‘copycat effect’ that could manifest among those less democratically inclined Southern rulers who would be inspired by the Trump administration to take the law into their hands, so to speak, and act with callous disregard for the sovereign rights of their smaller and more vulnerable neighbours.

Democratic opinion the world over would need to think of systems of checks and balances that could contain such power abuse by Southern autocratic rulers in particular. The UN and democracy-supportive organizations, such as the EU, could prove suitable partners in these efforts.

All in all it is international lawlessness that needs managing effectively from now on. If President Trump carries out his threat to over-run other countries as well in the manner in which he ran rough-shod over Venezuela, there is unlikely to remain even a semblance of international order, considering that anarchy would be receiving a strong fillip from the US, ‘The World’s Mightiest Democracy’.

What is also of note is that identity politics in particularly the South would be unprecedentedly energized. The narrative that ‘the Great Satan’ is running amok would win considerable validity among the theocracies of the Middle East and set the stage for a resurgence of religious fanaticism and invigorated armed resistance to the US. The Trump administration needs to stop in its tracks and weigh the pros and cons of its current foreign policy initiatives.

Features

Pure Christmas magic and joy at British School

Published

21 hours ago

2026/01/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Students of The British High School in Colombo in action at the fashion show

The British School in Colombo (BSC) hosted its Annual Christmas Carnival 2025, ‘Gingerbread Wonderland’, which was a huge success, with the students themseles in the spotlight, managing stalls and volunteering.

The event, organised by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), featured a variety of activities, including: Games and rides for all ages, Food stalls offering delicious treats, Drinks and refreshments, Trade booths showcasing local products, and Live music and entertainment.

The carnival was held at the school premises, providing a fun and festive atmosphere for students, parents, and the community to enjoy.

The halls of the BSC were filled with pure Christmas magic and joy with the students and the staff putting on a tremendous display.

Among the highlights was the dazzling fashion show with the students doing the needful, and they were very impressive.

The students themselves were eagerly looking forward to displaying their modelling technique and, I’m told, they enjoyed the moment they had to step on the ramp.

The event supported communities affected by the recent floods, with surplus proceeds going to flood-relief efforts.

Features

Glowing younger looking skin

Published

21 hours ago

2026/01/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Hi! This week I’m giving you some beauty tips so that you could look forward to enjoying 2026 with a glowing younger looking skin.

Face wash for natural beauty

* Avocado:

Take the pulp, make a paste of it and apply on your face. Leave it on for five minutes and then wash it with normal water.

* Cucumber:

Just rub some cucumber slices on your face for 02-03 minutes to cleanse the oil naturally. Wash off with plain water.

* Buttermilk:

Apply all over your face and leave it to dry, then wash it with normal water (works for mixed to oily skin).

Face scrub for natural beauty

Take 01-02 strawberries, 02 pieces of kiwis or 02 cubes of watermelons. Mash any single fruit and apply on your face. Then massage or scrub it slowly for at least 3-5 minutes in circular motions. Then wash it thoroughly with normal or cold water. You can make use of different fruits during different seasons, and see what suits you best! Follow with a natural face mask.

Face Masks

* Papaya and Honey:

Take two pieces of papaya (peeled) and mash them to make a paste. Apply evenly on your face and leave it for 30 minutes and then wash it with cold water.

Papaya is just not a fruit but one of the best natural remedies for good health and glowing younger looking skin. It also helps in reducing pimples and scars. You can also add honey (optional) to the mixture which helps massage and makes your skin glow.

* Banana:

Put a few slices of banana, 01 teaspoon of honey (optional), in a bowl, and mash them nicely. Apply on your face, and massage it gently all over the face for at least 05 minutes. Then wash it off with normal water. For an instant glow on your face, this facemask is a great idea to try!

* Carrot:

Make a paste using 01 carrot (steamed) by mixing it with milk or honey and apply on your face and neck evenly. Let it dry for 15-20 minutes and then wash it with cold water. Carrots work really well for your skin as they have many vitamins and minerals, which give instant shine and younger-looking skin.