The Cabinet has approved a proposal to establish a radioactive drug manufacturing center at the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) Hospital in Werahera.
The drug manufacturing centre will produce Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), a drug used in PET and CT scans to identify cancer cells in the body.
Sri Lanka is required to import the radioactive drug, as a special device called Cycclotron which is used to produce the drug is not available in the country.
Due to the radioactive decay, about 97% of the capacity of the drug is lost when it is imported from India. Only 10 patients can be treated from the remaining capacity.
Although there is a need to test about 30,000 patients annually, due to this only a capacity of 1600 patients can be tested and it costs the Government nearly Rs. 54,000 to test one patient using the imported drug.
The Cabinet pointed out that however, if the drug is manufactured locally, the cost can be reduced to Rs. 14,000.
Thereby, taking this into consideration, the Government has planned to set up a Deoxy Glucose Drug Manufacturing Centre at the Kotelawala Defence University Hospital premises in Werahera in collaboration with the Atomic Energy Board of the Sri Lanka.
The proposal submitted by Minister of Power Dullus Alahapperuma for this purpose has received Cabinet approval.
