The Hon. Amila Prasad

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, first, we support reducing medicine prices—100%. No one opposes cheaper access. Our duty in Opposition is to flag technical issues so the policy works in practice.

¶ 02 Two writ applications (517/19 and 491/2024) reportedly challenge the NMRA gazette; this signals problems to address. The 2015 Act No. 5 created the NMRA to unite importers, private pharmacies and others under one framework; earlier there was no coherent regulation.

¶ 03 My questions to Government: - Does WHO concur with these new regulations and the pricing method? - The IHP has raised concerns—what is Government’s response? - WHO guidelines caution against using CIF cost-plus as an overall policy and recommend complementary methods—will you adjust?

¶ 04 Recall 2015: metformin prices varied from Rs. 4.50 to Rs. 11 per tablet; capping selected products helped. Now, for the first time, you aim to cap the entire market. Have any countries successfully applied brand-based caps system-wide? If pricing is guided by CIF rather than therapeutic equivalence, price signals may track brands rather than pharmaceutical value, which departs from Senaka Bibile principles that your party has long upheld.

¶ 05 These regulations allow, for example, a Rs. 40 tablet to sell at Rs. 70, Rs. 2,000 pack at Rs. 3,300, and margins such that a Rs. 6,500 product could realize a 45% markup at retail. The NMRA officials themselves have discussed a structural issue: three tiers—importers, distributors, retailers. While you cap the final price, there is no clear apportionment of margins across these tiers. If importers take excessive margins, distributors/retailers may be unable to operate, risking supply interruptions.

¶ 06 Section 118 of the Act envisages agreement among the three groups when determining prices. Have these regulations been made with consensus? Why was Prof. Sirimal Abeyratne’s proposal—reportedly agreed by all three groups—set aside?

¶ 07 Finally, price caps risk crowding out higher-quality, higher-cost brands, leaving only lower-quality options. Are local quality-control labs ready to monitor and enforce standards, to avoid knee-jerk emergency procurements that invite corruption?

¶ 08 We support price reduction, but implementation must be technically sound.

¶ 09 Thank you.