Locally produced Saline (IV) for the public sector

COLOMBO (News 1st): State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana stated that locally produced saline or IV will be provided to the public sector from this month onwards.

Accordingly, he points out that importation of saline for the public sector will be halted, and will be supplied with locally produced saline.

The State Minister added that the public sector required about 18 million bottles of saline per year, and the intravenous (IV) fluids manufacturing plant in Pallekele has the ability to produce 5,000 bottles of saline per hour.

" Saline is basically sodium chloride and water. All we did was spend money to import water, which we can supply from Sri Lanka itself. So we can directly get involved in the production aspect without spending so much money for importing it," said the State Minister.

He added that Sri Lanka will be able to export saline as well.

The Chairman of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation of Sri Lanka  Dr. Prasanna Gunasena recently posted on Facebook that for the first time in history locally manufactured saline was handed over to Medical Supplies Division and no more saline will be imported.