Lankan pharmacists visit Thailand

Twenty leading pharmacists of Sri Lanka, who are the members of the Pharmaceutical Traders Association headed by their president Kapila de Zoysa and the executive committee, visited Thailand between January 15-17 to study their pharmaceutical business and ways of conducting good pharmacy practice.
The pharmacists had one full day workshop on Quality Pharmacy shop, organized by Dr Patcharaporn Panyawuthikrai and Dr. Wirat Tongrod, from the Pharmacy Council of Thailand. In the workshop they understood the criteria for a Quality Pharmacy shop and rules and regulations by Thailand FDA. The workshop was very interactive and the Sri Lankan pharmacists gained a lot of knowledge which can be used in daily practice in Sri Lanka.
The Pharmacists also visited the manufacturing facility of Mega Lifesciences Pty Ltd in Bangkok, Thailand. Mega Lifesciences incidentally has one of the largest soft gelatin manufacturing plants in South East Asia and holds approximately 2% market share of the world’s soft gelatin market.
The team witnessed the manufacturing process of Ferrovit (Iron Capsule) which batch was under production on that particular day. They were also educated on the quality aspects, quality control, quality assurance tests and standards adhered to by the company. The team was also briefed about the inventory management concepts such as First in, First out, packaging and storage conditions and methods.
The manufacturing plant of Mega Lifesciences is accredited by Australian, Danish, German and Thai quality control standards.
In addition to the factory visit the team interacted with Vivek Dhawan, the President and CEO of Mega Lifesciences, and understood the company’s vision and future plans.
Thailand boosts of one of the most developed pharmacy chains and the pharmacists got an opportunity to engage in a field visit and observe the layout, stocking and dispensing procedure in that outlet.
Overall, it was a wonderful learning experience of all those who participated and Mega Lifesciences hopes that the learning will be put into practice for the overall benefit of the Sri Lankan patients and consumers.