Senaka Bibile (Sinhala:සේනක බිබිලේ) (13 February 1920 – 29 September 1977) was a Sri Lankan pharmacologist. He was the founder of Sri Lanka's drug policy, which was used as a model for development of policies based on rational pharmaceutical use in other countries as well by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Non-Aligned Movement. Due to the far reaching effects of his proposals and policies, he has been called the 'greatest medical benefactor of humanity that Sri Lanka has hitherto produced'. Biography Senaka Bibile was born at Kataluwa Walawwa. His father was Charles William Bibile, a Rate Mahatmaya or Chief Native Feudal Official of Wellassa, his mother Sylvia Jayawardena of Kataluwa Walauwa, the manor house of the Obeyesekere - Jayawardena family. The Bibile family claimed descent from a 16th-century Vedda chieftain. Education He received his primary and secondary education at Trinity College, Kandy. He entered the Medical College in Colombo, where he had a brilliant career, winning the gold medals for medicine and surgery, and obtained a first class honours degree in 1945. In 1949, he began post-graduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, returning to Sri Lanka in 1952 with a PhD. His doctorate thesis was a study of biological assays of cortical hormone and their application. His PhD supervisor was Dr Marthe Louise Vogt a famous British Pharmacologist of German Origin. Academic career He joined the University of Ceylon in 1947. In 1947–49 he led a research team of doctors under the guidance of Professor Cullumbine, Professor of Physiology. In 1958 he was selected as the first Professor of Pharmacology and became the head of a new department. He was the first dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Peradeniya from 1967 to 1977. There he started the first medical education unit in Sri Lanka. Pharmaceutical policy He is best known for his advocacy of the government-controlled pharmaceutical purchasing plans often referred to as "rationalisation" of pharmaceuticals and the development of a national pharmaceuticals policy. He played the leading role in developing a rational pharmaceutical policy aimed at ensuring that impoverished people would get reasonable drugs at a low price. Further, the programs are aimed towards ensuring that doctors prescribe the minimum required drugs to treat the patient's illness. A careful selection of drugs was an essential component of the policies he advocated. He was called