The Hon. Hector Appuhamy

¶ 01 Presiding Member, I second and add a few points. You know the longstanding issues in health services, especially medicines. For the first time in history, a Cabinet Minister went to jail—this shows the gravity. Medicines are life; safeguarding life is our collective duty, led by the President and Health Minister. Yet we see major gaps.

¶ 02 For a long time we have discussed the NMRA and its Chairman. Notably, there is no pharmacist/pharmaceutical scientist on its Board—no one with specialist medicine regulation expertise. While the doctors are competent in their field, do they have adequate regulatory knowledge? In many countries, medicine regulators are pharmacists and regulatory experts. Here it is not so.

¶ 03 Particularly regarding the Chairman—how has he handled local manufacturers? Given the economy, Government should not only support but strengthen and guide local pharma producers, addressing deficiencies. Instead, the NMRA leadership—especially Dr. Ananda—appears aligned with multinational interests. For the first time, an NMRA Chairman is providing private channeling services; how can someone engaged in private practice be the head of the regulator?

¶ 04 There seems to be a conspiracy: on one hand, local manufacturers are undermined; on the other, dealings favor multinationals. On the NMRA lab, the Chairman promised COPE a year ago to upgrade to international standards—but nothing has been done.

¶ 05 Serious allegations exist against the Chairman; I intend to table over 15 questions. We call on the Government and the Health Minister to make a decision regarding the NMRA Chairman; otherwise, responsibility for ensuing failures will rest with them.