Source | Sai Bolan
Author | Yanse Chen Yu
After the “New Ten Articles” were issued, people’s lives became completely different. With a significant increase in the number of people in domestic areas who are quarantined at home, coupled with the high incidence of respiratory diseases in winter, it has become difficult to obtain antipyretic and cold medicines such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen.
Offline pharmacies and social platforms are filled with voices like “When will ibuprofen be available?” and “I still can’t buy ibuprofen.”
Currently, ibuprofen, which is out of stock in many parts of the country, is beginning to be “taken over.”
An industry insider told Sai Bolan that several pharmaceutical factories under his group, including some suppliers and warehouses, have been taken over, and the local government has sent special personnel to the factories to give priority to supplying local hospitals and large pharmacies.
01
The “Ibuprofen” that can’t be bought
Pharmaceutical companies, logistics… Where is the chain stuck?
“Now, not only ibuprofen is in short supply, but also the four types of drugs are in short supply, and even drugs related to the four types of drugs are also in short supply. Even drugs that have the function of relieving fever and treating rheumatism and bone diseases have been snapped up, just because they are related to fever. At the entrance of some children’s hospitals in Tianjin, scalpers even raised the price of Melling to 2000-3000 yuan per bottle.”
“We are also working hard to increase production, but the drug factory chain is connected to various links, such as production equipment, packaging equipment, and labor. Some pharmaceutical companies’ sales staff have been infected by half, and delivery cannot be carried out at all. It takes time to install equipment, and it also takes time for employees to recover.” said a person from a company that produces four types of drugs.
Under the continuous spread of the national epidemic, antipyretic and cold medicines such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen are “in short supply.”
On the evening of December 17, Sai Bolan continuously inquired at three pharmacies in Shanghai Songjiang District, Yifeng, Longwei, and Fumei, but still couldn’t buy ibuprofen. The replies from the pharmacy staff were very consistent, “Ibuprofen is gone, antipyretics are also gone, and there are still a small amount of cold medicines.”
(December 17, almost all “antipyretic and analgesic drugs” in a Shanghai pharmacy were sold out | Photo by Sai Bolan)
When Sai Bolan asked again when ibuprofen would be available, the staff all said, “It hasn’t been in stock for more than a week, and I don’t know when it will arrive.”
As the world’s major producer and exporter of ibuprofen raw materials, China accounts for one-third of its global production capacity. Currently, there are many domestic companies holding ibuprofen approval documents. According to the data from the State Drug Administration, there are as many as 558 domestic drug approval documents, and the drug dosage forms include capsules, granules, tablets, and other dosage forms.
People from pharmaceutical companies that produce ibuprofen preparations once told the media that the common specifications of ibuprofen preparations are 0.3g and 0.4g. In terms of 0.3g specifications, 1 ton of ibuprofen raw material can produce 3.3333 million tablets of ibuprofen preparations.
Sufficient raw materials and many approval documents, so many days have passed, why can’t we still buy them?
A company that produces four types of drugs told Sai Bolan, “For a long time, various places have strictly controlled the sale of four types of drugs. Patients basically do not hoard drugs. Pharmaceutical companies cannot sell their goods, and many companies and pharmacies of the four types of drugs have experienced capital chain breaks and bankruptcies in this process.”
“Although there were clear signs of loosening the restrictions on the four types of drugs in November, pharmaceutical companies basically did not receive clear notices, and not all provinces have relaxed the restrictions on the four types of drugs. Pharmaceutical companies still have doubts about inventory and stocking based on past experience. Under the outbreak of the epidemic in various places, the production capacity of many pharmaceutical companies’ four types of drugs has not been saturated, and even production has been stopped.“
According to the above-mentioned person, a pharmaceutical company that mainly produces chemical drugs has only about 3 months left for the shelf life of more than 20 four-type drug products, but after the outbreak of this “hoarding tide”, these drugs were instantly snapped up.
In addition, the epidemic has affected all aspects of life, including logistics.
Why haven’t the purchased drugs been delivered for a long time? A courier from a courier point in Shunyi District, Beijing, told Sai Bolan that the logistics have been very slow these days. It’s not that they don’t send them, but because there are many infected people, the goods are severely piled up, and the logistics can’t move. The main thing now is the lack of people.
02
Race against time, grab raw materials
Traditional Chinese medicine materials change prices in half a day, and chemical drug prices change every 2-3 hours
For drug production, raw materials are essential. Not only have the drug-seeking phone calls been blown up, but so has the search for drug raw materials.
A pharmaceutical company person told Sai Bolan: “Traditional Chinese medicine materials, such as Forsythia, Radix Isatidis, and Folium Isatidis, basically change prices in half a day; the raw materials of the four types of chemical drugs change prices every 2-3 hours. Amoxicillin raw materials are available but not in stock. If you can’t purchase the raw materials, everyone is anxious.”
Special writer of Sai Bolan, Ling Yun, once analyzed in an article that affected by the 2020 epidemic, the market price of Radix Isatidis quickly rose from 8.5 yuan/kg to 25 yuan/kg, the market price of Folium Isatidis rose from 2.5 yuan/kg to 5.5 yuan/kg, and Forsythia rose from 40 yuan/kg to the highest point of 90 yuan/kg in 2021, an increase of 125%.
The tight supply of some raw materials for anti-epidemic drugs has actually appeared early.
Tan Chengjie, from the Tiandi Yuntong Traditional Chinese Medicine Industry Big Data Center, said that since 2020, under the recommendation of the new crown diagnosis and treatment plan, the use of Lianhua Qingwen, Huo Xiang Zheng Qi and other drugs has increased, and the social demand for Forsythia has also increased significantly. In 2021 and 2022, affected by the La Niña climate, the single-yield production capacity of Forsythia decreased significantly; at the same time, under the stimulation of high prices, Forsythia experienced a serious situation of grabbing green, which artificially caused a reduction in production. In 2021-2022, the social inventory of Forsythia was the lowest in the past 5 years, which is why the price of Forsythia is most affected once the demand for epidemic prevention increases rapidly.
“Everyone is grabbing raw materials. The price of Forsythia has risen from 110 yuan/kg to 376 yuan/kg, and now it may be more. The most important thing is that many traditional Chinese medicine material suppliers are still holding goods and waiting to see, even if you pay the corresponding payment, there will be a situation of breach of contract, and the raw materials of chemical drugs, such as amoxicillin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen, are also like this.” said a pharmaceutical company person.
Tan Chengjie pointed out that every winter and spring season is the peak period for respiratory diseases. When the four types of drugs are controlled, the production of finished drugs is planned according to the volume of 2020-2021. Now everyone’s medication has become hoarding drugs. In addition to the basic security needs, more is the concern about the lack of drugs after the new crown infection. Therefore, the demand for finished drugs has increased by 3-4 times in the short term.
“Consumers have irrational hoarding behavior. Some families even hoarded 30 boxes of antipyretic patches. Taking the new crown Omicron as an example, a family of 4 people needs a maximum of 10 boxes, and there is no need to hoard so many drugs. In the end, some consumers have a lot of medicine, and some consumers have no medicine at all.” a person familiar with the matter revealed to Sai Bolan.
“If you can’t grab it and can’t afford it, it’s a very scary thing if the price of general drugs increases, even if it only increases by 1 cent.” said the above-mentioned pharmaceutical company person.
03
The “Ibuprofen” is “taken over”
The nationwide drug purchase problem is still severe
In response to the shortage of “ibuprofen”, many places have taken action.
A staff member of a circulation enterprise headquartered in a southern city revealed to Sai Bolan: “Now, each province gives priority to protecting its own province.”
It is reported that the local government, the market supervision bureau, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Health Commission recently held a research meeting with enterprises. At the meeting, the local government allocated supply guarantee tasks to enterprises for products such as ibuprofen and other antipyretics and antigen reagents, and proposed that “each pharmaceutical company should first meet the needs of medical institutions in the province”. In addition to hospitals, pharmacies should also be met, “so that the common people can buy them in pharmacies, and they don’t have to go to primary medical institutions to crowd out prescriptions”.
After communicating with local drug production enterprises, the Zhuhai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau of Guangdong Province decided that starting from December 20, about 500 retail pharmacies in the city will continuously supply antipyretic drugs and conduct “designated, limited, split-sale, and price-limited” sales.
The first batch of guaranteed supply drugs in Zhuhai, Guangdong, includes ibuprofen sustained-release capsules, diclofenac sodium sustained-release capsules, loxoprofen sodium capsules, ibuprofen suspension, etc. Citizens can register and purchase offline with their ID cards in designated pharmacies. Among them, the purchase quantity of ibuprofen sustained-release capsules, diclofenac sodium sustained-release capsules, and loxoprofen sodium capsules shall not exceed 6 tablets within 7 days, and the purchase quantity of ibuprofen suspension shall not exceed 1 bottle within 7 days. The above varieties can only be selected for one within 7 days, and the retail price is 1 yuan/tablet, and the sales price of ibuprofen suspension (100 ml) is 19 yuan/bottle.
On December 13, the office of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic Prevention and Control Command of Yichang City, Hubei Province, issued a scheduling order to Yichang Renfu Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., proposing “starting from December 14, we will now schedule from your company: ibuprofen tablets or acetaminophen tablets 25,000 people/day dose, for 10 consecutive days.”
According to the news from the Yichang Municipal Government of Hubei Province on December 18, Hubei Yifeng Pharmacy Chain Co., Ltd., Hubei Yichang Yicaotang Pharmacy Retail Chain Co., Ltd. and other chain pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies have recently received ibuprofen tablets. At present, the chain stores have adopted the method of splitting and selling 6-10 tablets per person as required by the municipal market supervision department.
(Source: Yichang Release)
At the same time, in order to ensure that relevant enterprises can continue to produce at full capacity, some areas also require shortening the time limit for payment. On December 18, the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau issued the “Notice on Further Doing a Good Job in the Procurement of New Coronavirus Prevention Drugs (Medical Consumables) to Meet the Urgent Clinical Needs”, requiring that “medical institutions should settle and pay for prevention drugs (medical consumables) in a timely manner, and the settlement and payment of antipyretic drugs should be completed within 3 working days after acceptance and warehousing“.
A pharmaceutical company with ibuprofen production qualifications once told the media that due to the small demand for ibuprofen in the market before, the relevant production capacity was shelved. Now that the demand has exploded, the company has just resumed production, and the drugs currently produced are expected to be delivered to the terminal market in mid-to-late December.
However, the above-mentioned circulation enterprise person told Sai Bolan that although the local government has proposed the general direction of “supply guarantee”, “we still don’t know how to give the goods specifically”. In addition, considering the requirement of “each province gives priority to protecting its own province”, he believes that the time to alleviate the shortage of drugs in various parts of the country is also related to the number of production enterprises in the province.
At present, only some local areas have proposed supply guarantee measures. The nationwide drug purchase problem is still very severe. Considering the differences in production capacity in various provinces, even if all provinces guarantee supply, how should the supply problem be solved for areas that do not or have few ibuprofen and other drug production enterprises?
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.