These days, it is easy to find most medicines in medical stores in India, barring vitamin C. But since a few days now, there has been an issue in the supply chain of medicines and it is estimated that in the coming months, people might have to face medicine emergency.
There are a number of reasons behind the lack of supply of essential medicine, antibiotics and vitamins. Let’s deep dive into why there’s a potential crisis brewing.
The China Factor
In India, more than 60 percent of the bulk drugs required to manufacture medicine come from China. Majority of these Chinese companies that supply bulk drugs are either upgrading their plants or are being shut down due to non-adherence to environmental standards.
As per latest data, there has been a drop in the import of bulk drugs used in the manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and most of these are not even available in the Indian markets. In such a scenario, it will become difficult for the manufacturers to produce the medicines.
Why Is There a Constant Decline in the Supply of Medicine? How Big Is the Issue?
Medicine manufacturers are facing a huge crisis due to the lack of bulk drugs in the market. The lack of supply of bulk drugs may affect the production of cholesterol lowering drugs, steroids, stress and hypertension drugs. The manufacturers say that they are running out of their pipeline stocks as well. The shortage of bulk drugs is causing a 20 -90 percent increase in their prices.
As a result, the cost of the API that produces the pain killer, paracetamol has doubled in the last six months. Since many medicines come under the government’s price control policy, the manufacturers cannot increase their prices. But they have cut down the manufacture of these drugs. This is the one of the prime reasons for the low supply of the drugs in the market.
Effect of Price Control on Drugs
As per a government report, during the last two years the price of 851 drug formulations have been lowered by 5-40 percent. The Chemicals and Fertilizers Ministry had informed the Lok Sabha that the price of at least 234 essential medicines has been reduced by 5 percent.
The National Pharmaceutical Authority (NPPA) has reduced the prices of 65 products by 25-30 percent and the price of 46 products by 30-35 percent. This has resulted in the low manufacturing of most of these drugs by the pharma companies, which has in turn affected the supply.
What is Oxytocin? And What Led to its Shortage?
Oxytocin injection is given of pregnant women during delivery to prevent hemorrhage or loss of blood. Many women lose their lives to hemorrhage while giving birth and oxytocin is an important tool to stop these deaths.
But the government banned the sale of these drugs because of its rampant misuse in the dairy industry, where farmers inject cows with the hormone to get them to lactate on demand. The milk by these cows has lead to increasing cases of TB and cancer in people.
Currently, the court has extended the stay on the ban till November.
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