[The Epoch Times, December 21, 2022]The sharp rise in the epidemic situation in mainland China has triggered a wave of drug rush. Some insiders said that this situation is related to the Chinese Communist Party’s official control of drugs such as fever reduction since the epidemic three years ago. Some pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies have already collapse. Now that the demand is soaring, many pharmaceutical companies have not received the notice of stocking up in advance, so they cannot increase production immediately.
The mainland medical information media “Cyberland” published an article on December 20 to disclose that the current severe shortage of antipyretic drugs is directly related to the strict control of the “four types of drugs” including antipyretic drugs by the authorities in the past three years.
The so-called “four types of drugs” generally refer to antipyretic, cough, antibiotic and antiviral drugs, including the most sought-after antipyretic and analgesic drug ibuprofen (Ibuprofen). Due to the shortage, on the 19th, Zhuhai, Guangdong officially announced that from the 20th, guaranteed supply medicines such as ibuprofen will be sold in unpacked boxes, with limited prices and real-name purchases.
The “Cyberland” article quoted a practitioner of a pharmaceutical company that produces Class IV drugs as revealing that since the sale of Class IV drugs is strictly controlled in various places, “patients will basically not hoard drugs, and pharmaceutical companies cannot sell them. Many Class IV drugs In this process, many enterprises and pharmacies have broken their capital chains and closed down.”
Over the past three years, the CCP has adhered to a strict dynamic zeroing policy, and local officials have restricted clinics and pharmacies from selling fever medicines from time to time. For example, on September 30, 2021, the Guangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Bureau issued a notice stating that, as determined by the Guangzhou Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters, from October 1 to October 20, retail pharmacies in the city will ban the sale of the “Drug List that Requires Real-Name Registration During the Epidemic Period” “Inside medicines. The directory lists 37 drugs, including ibuprofen.
The aforementioned industry said that although there was a clear move to loosen the restrictions on the four types of drugs in November, pharmaceutical companies have basically not received a clear notice, and not all provinces have released the four types of drugs, so pharmaceutical companies based on past experience , Still have doubts about inventory and stocking.
The industry also said that under the situation of epidemic prevention and control in various places, the production capacity of the four types of drugs of many pharmaceutical companies is not saturated, and even production has stopped. Now suddenly to increase production, all links are facing various difficulties.
In addition, the advisory group of the WeChat public account “Hospital Director” also issued a document on the 20th to disclose that the government strictly controlled the four types of drugs in the early stage, and no one notified the pharmaceutical companies in advance to increase the production of the four types of drugs before the relevant controls were suddenly relaxed. Moreover, “so far no one or department has come out to review: I was wrong.”
It is understood that there are more than 500 companies producing ibuprofen in China, and there is no shortage of raw materials. Even if there are only 200 manufacturers, if they are notified one month in advance to increase production and stock up, they can still make one box for everyone.
Responsible editor: Ning Feng#