Minister of Health, Nutrition, and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senaratna will sign an agreement with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency today to build the state of the art manufacturing plant with latest infrastructure at the State Pharmaceutical Corporation to increase the drug manufacturing capacity.

The investment is Rs 1.5 billion while the government spends over Rs 55 billion a year for drugs and medical equipment.

At present 12100 kinds of medicines in 32 varieties are manufactured by the state Pharmaceutical Corporation. The minister has decided to increase the capacity at the State Pharmaceutical Corporation to provide high quality drugs to the local market and the hospitals around the country. Another aim of increasing capacity is saving foreign exchange. Minister Senaratna says that he aims to manufacture 75% of the drug requirement in Sri Lanka by 2018.To fulfill this aim 32 companies are awaiting to sign agreements with the State Pharmaceutical Corporation to manufacture drugs.