Saline produced locally will be sufficient to meet 100% of the public sector requirement, with the remainder to be provided to the private sector, the Pharmaceutical Production, Supply and Regulation State Ministry stated yesterday.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry, Sri Lanka has thus far relied on saline imports due to unsuccessful attempts since 2012 to manufacture saline locally, despite interest from the Government as well as manufacturers.

However, in 2019, three manufacturers came forward after an invitation was extended to all interested parties to begin production. Construction of a manufacturing plant took a period of a year and relevant certification, as well as Cabinet approval, was received by 1 September.

According to Pharmaceutical Production, Supply and regulation State Minister Channa Jayasumana, the factory can produce 5,000 bottles of saline per hour.

“The Public sector requires 18 million saline bottles per year and this factory can produce 43 million bottles a year. We can thus manufacture an excess of 25 million bottles and a portion of it can be provided to the private sector and, in future, locally-produced saline can be exported as well,” he said.

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