{"id":13752,"date":"2024-11-11T03:07:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T03:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/?p=13752"},"modified":"2024-11-11T03:07:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T03:07:11","slug":"is-there-a-risk-of-closing-pharmacies-across-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/is-there-a-risk-of-closing-pharmacies-across-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a risk of closing pharmacies across the country?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Recently, even the mainstream media has been reporting misleading news, and people are discussing this. Accordingly, due to a news report in a mainstream newspaper on November 8th, this discussion arose again. So, we decided to do a fact-check on this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A news post on Facebook stated, \u201cThere is a risk of closure of pharmacies across the country.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facebook<\/a> | Archived Link<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are some other posts shared under the same heading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The base for these posts was the news published on Aruna newspaper on 8th<\/sup> November 2024 with the headline, \u201cRisk of closure of pharmacies across the country\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is there a risk of closure of pharmacies from next January? We took steps to find the credibility of this news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact Check:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 8th<\/sup> November 2024, the main story of Aruna newspaper reported that there is a risk of closure of pharmacies across the country. According to the news published, the All-Island Private Pharmacy Owner\u2019s Association has warned that there is a risk of the closure of many pharmacies by January next year due to the rejection of many applications sent to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority for the renewal of the annual licenses of 5000 pharmacies across the island. The newspaper further reports<\/a> that Chandana Gankanda, the Chairman of the All Island Private Pharmacy Owner\u2019s Association, said that the National Medicines Authority has taken an urgent decision and started rejecting applications saying that there is a shortage of pharmacists in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Divaina\u2019 newspaper has also reported that news under the headline: \u201cRisk of closure of pharmacies due to the new licensing law\u201d. It reports that Chandana Gankanda, the chairman of All Island Private Pharmacy Owner\u2019s Association, stated that there is a risk of closure of pharmacies across the country because they have started to issue licenses for pharmacies in 2025 only if the pharmacists remain in the pharmacy, the entire time they are open. It further says that Mr. Chandana Gankanda said that there are only 6000 pharmacists in the country though there are about 5100 private pharmacies and 60 government pharmacies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has further stated that, the law which was proposed to be implemented by the government within 100 days in 2015 by the Drug Regulatory Authority was not implemented at the time because of many practical issues, and that there may be a higher risk if it is implemented about a month after the new government was elected.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can watch here<\/a>, here<\/a> and here<\/a>, how it was reported through television media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, Chandana Gankanda, while holding a press conference, said that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority has recently tightened the law that a pharmacist must remain at the pharmacy full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n