The Medical and Civil Rights Professional Association of Doctors (MCPA) has requested the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe into the circumstances under which a batch of human intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) that was previously withdrawn from use has now been approved for re-use.
The association has also called for an inquiry into the financial loss caused to the Government if the earlier decision to suspend the medicine was, in fact, based on an incorrect laboratory finding.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, MCPA President Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa said that once a drug is withdrawn from circulation – especially one as sensitive as IVIG – it is generally marked for destruction, and therefore, reintroducing it for patient use raises serious ethical and safety concerns.
“If these medicines have already been discarded or allowed to expire, any move to bring them back into use is medically questionable,” he said.
If the earlier decision to suspend the said batch of drugs was based on incorrect laboratory findings, he said that its suspension causes a massive financial loss to the Government. “A vial of this specific IVIG costs nearly Rs. 50,000. When the decision to suspend it was made, it was removed from hospitals in large quantities and stored or discarded. If the authorities now say that those findings were not correct, the relevant financial loss should be recovered from the relevant officials.”
This request comes following the revelation that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) has cleared the drug stock in question, which had been fully withdrawn from use around eight months ago. According to the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division’s (MSD) website, the NMRA has now confirmed that the stock is of acceptable quality.
The Health Ministry’s Drug Risk Assessment Subcommittee is said to have tested four samples from the IVIG batch in question and found bacterial toxins and visible contaminants last year (2024). This resulted in a formal ban on 23 October 2024, under circular 2024/41 issued by the MSD.