Dominic Johnpillai
Abstract
The COVID-19 Pandemic in the contemporary has led to a global recession through a supply chain crisis and inflation, wherein the flaws of production, transportation and unequal distribution of pharmaceutical and medical devices have become more evident. In such a context, Sri Lanka, since state of emergency on 1st April 2022 imposed in response to large scale protests occurring in the context of a severe politico-economic crisis affecting the country exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic and its aftereffects, have suffered its worst economic performance on record in 2020, with the economy contracting by 3.6%. Sri Lanka’s usually robust health system has contracted, leading to widespread shortages in basic preventative and curative medication. As such, this essay seeks to investigate the current crisis in pharmaceutical and medical device procurement in Sri Lanka, as a consequence of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortcomings in recovery and building-back-better processes, by highlighting the challenges Sri Lanka faces, and the merits of the Build-Back-Better as a prescription in addressing the aforementioned challenges.
Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Pharmaceutical and medical device, economic crisis, Build-Back-Better, Sri Lanka