KUALA LUMPUR: The country could face a shortage of generic drugs if the Covid-19 outbreak becomes “pandemic and uncontrollable”.
Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society president Amrahi Buang said although the situation in Malaysia was under control, the spread of the coronavirus, which resulted in the closure of pharmaceutical factories in China and India, could spark a shortage crisis.
This, he said, was because China was responsible for producing most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used in drugs.
“We can see that the situation is improving as China has started to close down hospitals used to treat Covid-19 patients and the number of new cases has dropped (in China).
“However, the decision by the Indian government is a signal of things to come in the near future. It will affect the production of medicines.
“This will affect the country and people,” he told the New Straits Times.
BBC News, on Wednesday, reported that there were fears of global shortages of some generic drugs after India, the world’s main supplier of generic medicines, restricted exports of 26 ingredients and medicines made from them due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The restricted drugs include Paracetamol, a widely-used pain reliever.
Amrahi cautioned that the production of medicines would be affected if pharmaceutical manufacturers had no raw APIs to work with.
“Seventy per cent of medicines are imported (into Malaysia) and even multinational companies get their APIs from China and Indonesia.
“Without APIs, the medicines will not have active ingredients. We are aware that the production of ingredients like gelatin, stearates and glycols will also be affected.”
He said diseases would run rampant if there were such shortages, adding that this would lead to increased morbidity and mortality.
“The people might defer treatment or seek alternatives.”
He advised healthcare facilities to begin conducting stock check of medicines and rationalising the supply base.
“Creating awareness among health facilities is key to handling shortages.
“The country’s preparedness to face the scenario is vital.”
He said general practitioners should know that such a scenario could happen in the country.
He said they should prescribe medicines prudently and issue prescriptions to patients when they ran out of stock so that patients could buy medicines from pharmacies.
For patients under government healthcare facilities, he said, they should take medicines only when necessary.
“If they have extra medicines at home, they should either finish or return them to government healthcare facilities.”
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there was no issue at the moment pertaining to the country’s drugs supply.
“We have an ongoing process (to stock check medicines) and (there is) no issue of shortages at the moment.”
Indian drug manufacturers rely on China for almost 70 per cent of the APIs in their medicines.
The United States and European nations have also expressed concerns about potential shortages of common generic drugs.
ABC News, on Feb 27, reported that 90 per cent of the active ingredients used by US companies in drug manufacturing came from China.
Thirteen per cent of all facilities that make ingredients for drugs sold in the US are located in China.
Europe is experiencing delays in supply of medicines and face masks due to the outbreak.
