The price reduction of the 48 essential medical drugs by the Sri Lankan government in 2016 is a major achievement in safeguarding patients’ rights to access affordable medicine in Sri Lanka, says World Health Organization (WHO) in its 2016 annual report.

The WHO report also praised the Health, Nutrition, and Indigenous Ministry’s decision to introduction of colour code to reduce the consumption of sugar.

These steps have an enormous impact on the health of the population, particularly in field of treatments in non-communicable disease including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other common diseases, the report added. (GID)