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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 1273368" data-attributes="member: 212"> Will his drugs legacy survive the new tendencies in the industry? SO July 22  2006                                         <img src="http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Elkawgw/sbibilel3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />         Prof.Senaka Bibile       <img src="http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Elkawgw/sbibilel1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />In a  statement released recently, the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of  India, argues that "proper implementation of (a) world class Patent Law will  encourage foreign direct investment, technology transfer, stimulate local  research by Indian and international companies and will be beneficial to the  Indian pharmaceutical industry and finally to the people of India".  But the people who need the medicines  most will have to pay a heavy price, and not just in India. "India exports  approximately Rs. 3,000-crore worth of HIV, asthma, mental health and diabetes  drugs to nations such as Africa and Sri Lanka," says Leena Menghaney of  Medicines Sans Frontieres, an international organisation providing medical aid.  "We're fighting this battle drug by drug. There are people who can't struggle  for their right to affordable medicines and will simply die." The Drugs policy  that was waged by Dr. Senaka Bibile therefore is still not won.  Seneka Bibile (February 13 1920 -  September 29 1977) pharmacologist, was the founder of Sri Lanka's drug policy ,  which was used as a model for development of policies based on rational  pharmaceutical use in other countries as well by the WHO,UNCTAD and the Non  Aligned Movement.   <img src="http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Elkawgw/sbibilel2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />He has  been called the 'greatest medical benefactor of humanity that Sri Lanka has  hitherto produced'.  This trail blazing legend in his own  time, was born at Kathaluwa near Galle. His father was Charles Bibile, a Rate  Mahathmaya or Chief Native Feudal Official, his mother Sylvia Jayawardana of  Kathaluwa Walauwa, the manor house of the Jayawardana Native Feudal family.  The Bibile family  The Bibile family claimed descent from a  16th century Vedda chieftain. He received his primary and secondary education at  Trinity College, Kandy, and later entered the Medical College in Colombo, where  he had a brilliant career, winning the gold medals for medicine and surgery, and  obtained a first class honours degree in 1945. In 1949, he began post-graduate  studies at the University of Edinburgh, returning to Sri Lanka in 1952 with a  PhD.  His early career in research was  indicative of great promise. .He joined the University of Ceylon in 1947, net  1947-49 he led a research team of doctors under the guidance of Prof.  Cullumbine, Professor of Physiology.  In 1958 he was selected as the first  Professor of Pharmacology and became the head of a new department. He was the  first dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Peradeniya from 1967  to 1977. There he started the first medical education unit in Sri Lanka. He is  best known for his advocacy of the government-controlled pharmaceutical  purchasing plans often referred to as "rationalisation" of pharmaceuticals and  the development of a national pharmaceuticals policy.  He played the leading role in developing  such a pharmaceutical policy aimed at ensuring that impoverished people would  get reasonable drugs at a low price. A pharmaceutical patenting law is now  threatening to disturb this drugs policy. Further, the programs begun by Bibile  are aimed towards ensuring that doctors prescribe the minimum required drugs to  treat the patient's illness.  A careful selection of drugs was an  essential component of the policies he advocated. He was called up by the  Minister of Health to address this issue, and prepared the Ceylon Hospital  Formulary of about 630 drugs under their generic names almost singlehandedly.  Subsequently the National Formulary Committee (NFC), consisting of  representatives from the public and private health sectors and the University  Medical Schools, was set up with him as its first chairman.  The NFC published Formulary Notes for  the use of doctors, which later became The Prescriber. At the time, it was  alleged and widely believed that Pharmaceutical companies in the country made  considerable money by selling drugs under their trade names, giving out biased  information about the branded drugs as against those named generically.  The United Front Government of 1970  appointed Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe and Dr. Bibile to lead a commission of  inquiry to investigate this issue and they recommended the establishment of a  national policy and of a state body to regularise the trade.  Accordingly, in 1971 T. B. Subasinghe,  the Minister of Industries, appointed Dr Bibile as founder chairman of the Sri  Lanka State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC). The SPC channelled all imports of  pharmaceuticals.  The SPC also called for worldwide bulk  tenders which were limited to the approved drugs listed in the national  formulary. The public and private health sectors obtained all their requirements  from the SPC. Hence the drug trade was regulated by this body and vendors were  forced to compete with each other and with generic drug producers on a cost  basis only.  This program is generally perceived to  have resulted in a cheaper drug supply for poor countries. This trail blazing  policy was supported later by WHO and other UN agencies with enormous benefit to  Third World countries.  The UNCTAD Secretariat examined the Sri  Lankan experience, concluding that an analysis of the Sri Lankan model could  give other developing countries an insight into ways of formulating, developing  and implementing integrated national pharmaceutical policies. With Bibile's  assistance, UNCTAD published "Case Studies in the Transfer of Technology:  Pharmaceutical Policies in Sri Lanka".  This document has proved to be a very valuable guideline for developing  countries intending to initiate pharmaceutical reforms. Translated into other  languages, it may be found with health planners of almost every Third World  country.  Although his policy was watered down by  the United National Party Government of 1977, which re-opened the doors to  unrestricted imports, the SPC was never dissolved and continued to supply  affordable drugs.  NMPD  In 2005 the United People's Freedom  Alliance Government promised to establish a National Medicinal Drugs Policy (NMPD)  that would enable Sri Lankans significantly to cut down on drug expenses and get  quality drugs at affordable prices while saving billions of Rupees in foreign  exchange for the country. Implementation of the NMDP could reduce the number of  drugs imported, prescribed and sold in Sri Lanka to about 350 varieties.  Bibile's contribution to development in  the area of drugs was acknowledged publicly during the 35th World Health  Assembly, in Geneva in May 1982. It has been alleged by some conspiracy  theorists that it is possible that the threat he posed to the powerful drugs  Multi-nationals may have had some bearing on his premature death in 1977 while  on a UN assignment in Guyana to introduce these policies there.  It's not known very much that Bibile was  a Trotskyist, a member of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party becoming Treasurer of its  Youth Leagues in his early years. He conducted study classes on Marxism at his  house in Castle Street, Colombo.  At the height of the language issue  crisis, when the LSSP stood for both Sinhala and Tamil being state languages, he  agreed to contest a by-election seat in the Colombo Municipal Council as the  LSSP candidate, to fight for that principle, risking his life in the process and  facing certain defeat in an atmosphere of ethnic animosity.  Dr. Bibile was the author of over 45  publications, including: Bibile, S, and Lall, S, 'The Political Economy of  Controlling Transnationals: The Pharmaceutical Industry in Sri Lanka (1972-76)',  World Development, August 1977. An oration is held every year in commemoration  of Seneka Bibile, under the auspices of the Kandy Society of Medicine.</blockquote>

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