Bitter Pills:Medicines & The Third World Poor | Page 258

128

Sanjaya Lall, (Institute of Economics and Statistics, Oxford University) and Senaka Bibile
(University of Sri Lanka), "The Political Economy of Controlling Transnationals: the
Pharamceutical Industry in Sri Lanka (1972-76)", in World Development, Vol.5. No.8.677-697,
Pergamon Press, 1977.

129

Ibid.,p.685.

130

Letter from C. Joseph Stetler. President Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association to the
Honorable Mrs. Sirimavo R.D. Bandaranaike, 10 May 1973.

131

Lall and Bibile, 1977 op.cit., p.685.

132

Ibid., p.686.

133

Ibid.

134

-

UNCTAD, case studies in transfei of technology: Pharmaceutical policies in Sri Lanka
(TD/B/C.6/21), UN,1977, p.31.
Ibid., note 26, p.696.

135

-

Anil Agarwal, Drugs and the Third World, Earthscan, London, 1978, p.38.

136

Ibid., p.686.
Dr. Michael Hodin, Director of Public Affairs, Pfizer, personal communication, 17 March
1982.

137

Ibid.

138

Dr. Gladys Jayewardene, Chairman SPC (after the Bandaranaike Government was replaced
by the Jayewardene Government), A critical study of the purchases of the Slate Pharmaceuticals
Corporation of Sri Lanka referred to in the UNCTAD Report 1977, Rainbow Printers,
Colombo, 21 September 1981. WHO was sent the critical study by the author asking them
to publish it. WHO declined.

139

Ibid.

140

The reference to expanding trade with Eastern Europe and China comes from one sentence,
(quoted out of context), of a 2-page article by S. A. Wickremansinghe and S. Bibile (who
developed the new Sri Lankan drug policies). British Medical Journal 1971, 3, pp.757-758.
Dr. Jayewardene's study is critical that the 1977 UNCTAD Report did not make it clear thai
most SPC purchases after the adoption of the new policies continued to be from traditional
suppliers. But para. 109 and Table 3 of the UNCTAD Report make it clear that most drug
imports in 1976 were still from developed market economies.

141

V.T. Herat Gunaratne, Director WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, 'Bringing down
drug costs: the Sri Lankan example', World Health Forum, 1(1,2) WHO, 1980, pp.117-122.

142

D.C. Jayasuriya, Attorney-at-Law, "Regulating the drug trade in the Third World", World
Health Forum 2(3), WHO, 1981, pp 423-426. It is also interesting to note that the SPC was
criticised by the medical establishment and the press for buying tetracycline from the Polish
company Polfa, as this was said to be sub-standard. But in 1980/1 - after liberalisation of
drug import - Polfa tetracycline held over 80% of the market in Sri Lanka.

143

In view of our criticism in the pr Wf