STO to take measures uninterrupted medical supply

State Trading Organization (STO) on Friday evening, announced it was working with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to ensure interrupted medicine supplies in the Maldives, especially lesser available medicine.

The announcement was made during Friday evening’s STO Annual General Meeting 2023.

During the Q&A session, shareholders expressed concerns over the supply-chain disruptions to medicine.

STO Managing Director Shimad Ibrahim, in response said they are now working to resolve difficulties faced in supplying medicine without interruptions. He noted the recent software upgrades also halted medical supplies temporarily, but assured the issue would not be permanent.

He further noted that the Ministry of Finance and UNDP have reached an agreement to ensure interrupted supply of generally available and scarce medicine.

“The issue is that pharmacies and special distributions are not receiving medicine for the minimum order quantities due to the diminutive nature of the Maldives. UNDP and the Ministry of Finance have reached an agreement to resolve this, under which UNDP will provide medicine through health procurement. So, I think once doctors begin prescribing medicine through Aasandha portal, this would get resolved,” Shimad said.

He further noted that the supply-chain disruptions on medicine is a prevalent concern, and assured STO was working on all angles to ensure a resolution.

The highest Aasandha expenditure is made on medicine procurement for which the state spends over MVR 500 million per annum.

The government has taken measures to cut costs on medicine procurement, while World Bank earlier reported that the medicines sold in the Maldives were sold in excess of MVR 15 to 75 compared to global rates.