It was revealed in the court today (14) that a report confirmed that an anti-cancer drug supplied by the questionable drug supplier related to the substandard antibody vaccine fraud was also substandard. Sri Lanka Latest News
Meanwhile, the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court today ordered the remand of 6 suspects, including former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, until the end of the trial about the substandard antibody vaccine scam.
The Deputy Director of the Medical Supply Unit Dr. Thusitha Sudarshana was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department last night about the incident of purchasing substandard human immunoglobulin injections.
The doctor who came to the island yesterday from abroad was arrested after being called to the Criminal Investigation Department to obtain a statement, and he was also a member of the evaluation committee of the procurement process related to the antibody injection incident.
The suspect was brought before the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court this afternoon when the case related to substandard human immunoglobulin injections was also called again today.
Accordingly, the 8 suspects, including former health minister Mr Keheliya Rambukwella, who are currently remanded in custody, were presented to the court by the prison officials.
Then the Deputy Solicitor General of the Government, Miss Lakmini Girihagama, presented facts before the court regarding further investigations.
“Sir, I request the court to name the suspect Thusitha Sudarshan who has been presented to your court today as the 11th suspect in this case. This person is one of the two doctors who served as a member of the evaluation committee in the procurement process related to the medicine in question called Human Immunoglobulin, while the other doctor is still abroad avoiding the court. While working in the procurement committee, their responsibility is to recommend the quality of the drug to be procured and the true information about the supplier. But, sir, the reason for this great crime was that they supplied a medicine that could not be produced locally, and gave it to a local supplier. When asked the reason, they said that we thought that the supply would be brought from India. But the people of the country do not choose medicine according to their wishes, the people of the country pay taxes. Each of these suspects in the dock is tasked with testing the standard of the vaccine dose. I would like to ask that if no one in this defense cage takes the responsibility of checking the quality of the vaccine dose, then the patients who receive the vaccine should also be tested there. “
Also, the Deputy Solicitor General presented to the court a standard report regarding the anti-cancer drug, which was previously revealed to have been supplied to the medical supply department by the supplier of human immunoglobulin in question.
” Sir, another drug supplied by this questionable drug supplier is Ritoximap. The tender has been awarded to the supplier in question to supply 2,250 doses of the said medicine as well as the human immunoglobulin injection dose while there is sufficient stock in the health sector. Accordingly, this supplier has provided 2200 doses of Rituximab injections to the medical supply department on 4 occasions. Sir, regarding the quality of that drug, we called for a quality report from the Cancer Institute of Maharagama Apeksha Hospital. The National Drug Regulatory Authority has submitted that report to the court today. Swamini rituximab drug is applicable to cure cancer only if it contains an anti-cancer antibody called monoclonal. But sir, the doses of Ritoximap provided by this supplier do not contain that antibody at all. It was just a supply of human immunoglobulin and just a supply of solutions. It is for such a solution that 1000 lakh rupees have been paid by the tax paying people of the country. Sir, even when the drug was called into question and the vaccine doses were recalled by a court order, 1200 of the 2200 doses of the distributed vaccine had been used. Only 1000 doses of vaccine were left. “
After that, the order regarding the bail application of suspects 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 in this case was announced by Mrs. Lochani Abeywickrama.
“One of the main positions taken by the defence is that the charges levelled against their clients do not fall under the Public Property Act. But the court’s position is that the public property act applies to all the defendants, as the payment made to the first suspect for the injection doses was more than Rs.25,000 and it was paid from the Ministry of Health’s budget, i.e. public money. Because officials also have responsibility for the value of government property. Accordingly, the provision of the Public Property Act is that if the defendants do not present special facts, they will be kept in custody until the end of the trial. Also, even if general bail is considered as a rule regardless of special circumstances, bail cannot be granted based on public disturbance. Therefore, taking these facts into account, this court decides to reject the bail applications made by the suspects 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8. “
Accordingly, Magistrate Ms Lochani Abeywickrama announced that the 6 suspects, including former Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and former Health Secretary Janaka Sri Chandragupta, will be remanded in custody until the end of the trial.
Also, the Magistrate’s Court ordered that the Deputy Director of the Medical Supply Unit, Dr. Thusitha Sudarshana and the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Saman Ratnayake, who were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday, will be remanded in custody until the 28th of March.
Source: Derana