News
Jayasumana airs suspicion of Opposition’s friends in pharmaceutical mafia having hand in data loss
By Saman Indrajith
State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana told Parliament yesterday that is was suspected that the supporters of the pharmaceutical mafia might have hacked into the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) database.
Responding to a series of questions raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, the State Minister said that the government would not allow the release of low-quality medicines to the market and there would be no increases in the prices of medicines due to the NMRA data loss.
The State Minister said that the data files related to those affairs were safe and only the data on the registration and renewal of registration of local pharmacies had been deleted.
Minister Jayasumana said that there was a possibility of recovering the lost data.
He said that the supporters of the pharmaceutical mafia had had a field day during the times of the Yahapalana government that the “Pharmaceutical mafia was flourishing during the 2015 to 2019 period, activities of such groups were brought to a halt after the present government came into power. Following the regime change the pharmaceutical mafia lost its hold and is now facing a crisis. There were suspicions that the NMRA data loss had been engineered by the pharmaceutical mafia,” the Minister said.
He said the companies that were part of the pharmaceutical mafia were prevented from importing drugs under various names or gain exorbitant profits. The deletion of NMRA data could be part of a conspiracy hatched by the pharmaceutical mafia. It could be that they were frustrated and in a crisis so that they attacked the NMRA database. The CID was conducting a probe to identify the perpetrators of the racket.
He said that there was no risk of prices of medicines increasing or blacklisted companies being able to import drugs owing to the NMRA data loss.
Minister Jayasumana said that 5,925 files had disappeared from the NMRA database. Among the files that disappeared, 3,137 were related to the registration or re-registration of pharmacies.
“There is no risk of drug prices going up, or companies being able to import blacklisted drugs under different names,” the Minister said.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the proposal presented by the Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development to award the contract for printing and supplying vehicle number plates for the Department of Motor Traffic for a period of five (5) years to M/s South Asian Technologies based on the recommendations of the High-Level Standing Procurement Committee and the Procurement Appeal Board.
The National Lotteries board has been established subject to the Finance Act No. 11 of 1963. Having identified the requirement of amending that act which was imposed around 62 years to cater the current requirements of the lottery market, the Cabinet of Mnisters at their meeting held on 14.02.2017 granted approval to draft a new bill for the purpose.
Accordingly, the National Lotteries Board has recognized further amendments to be performed to the fundamental draft bill prepared by the Legal Draftsmen.
Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval for the
resolution furnished by the President in his office as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to direct the Legal Draftsmen to finalize the formulation of the draft bill for the National Lotteries Board as soon as possible including the proposed new amendments as well.
The Werahara office of the Department of Motor Traffic performs issuance of temporary driving licenses in this country based on the driving licenses issued overseas, and measures have been initiated to render the service from a service window of the Department of Motor Traffic established at the Bandaranayake International Airport from 03.08.2025.
The fees charged for issuing temporary driving licenses have been published in Motor Vehicles (Driving License Levy) Regulations No. 3 of 2022 prepared under the provisions of the Motor Traffic (Authority 203) Act.
But, as the fee of Rupees 2,000/- charged for the service is not sufficient, the requirement of amending the regulations has been recognized.
The regulations for introducing the revised fees have been published in the government extraordinary gazette
notification No. 2463/04 dated 17.11.2025. Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Transport, Highways and Urban Development to
submit the regulations to the Parliament for its concurrence.
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M/s South Asian Technologies awarded contract to supply vehicle number plates
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