26-27 November 2019, Colombo, Stakeholders met on November 26th and 27th, 2019 to participate in the kick-off workshop for the formulation of a revised National Medicine Policy (2020-2025) and the creation of a Strategic Implementation Plan (2020-2021). Participants identified policy elements to include in the revised plan, agreed on a strategy for its development, and determined the necessary working groups.
Documents that outline policies for medicine have a long history in Sri Lanka, dating back to the 1970s. The current National Medicinal Drug Policy (NMDP) was issued in 2005. In 2019, the Ministry of Health Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine (MoH) requested WHO Country Office technical support in the revision of the 2005 NMDP. Accordingly, WHO contracted the services of Prof Hans V. Hogerzeil, an emeritus Professor of Global Health at Groningen University (Netherlands) and Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Essential Medicines to lead the process with WHO regional and local consultants.
At the end of the workshop, stakeholders had drafted the Strategic Implementation Plan for 2020-2021, which will be further reviewed and finalized by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) and local stakeholders through a broader consultative process. In 2020, the technical expert team of Prof Hans and the WHO regional consultant will return to Sri Lanka to finalize the plan with the MoH and the NMRA.
