More than 70 percent of the drugs in short supply were products of multinational pharmaceutical companies in 2020, government data showed. Five out of the six medicines in insufficient supply this year were made by multinationals.
Korea Biomedical Review has analyzed the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety data and found that 37 out of 51 cases of short output/import/supply of drugs were those by multinational drugmakers.
Pfizer Korea’s Aldactone Film Coated Tab. 25mg and Caverject Injection 20μg reported five and four cases of short supply, respectively.
According to January data, Aldactone’s supply had not been enough since mid-December in 2019. The drug was in stock at the end of the same month, and the supply was expected to be back to normal in mid-January 2020. However, shipping delays caused by the year-end holiday pushed back the normal supply of Aldactone to the end of January 2020.
However, the problem of Aldactone supply re-surfaced in just three months. Pfizer reported a delay in manufacturing in April, June, November, and December last year due to a delay in raw materials and decreased production capacity.
Pfizer also reported a short supply of Caverject in March, May, June, and September citing factory circumstances.
Including those of the two items, Pfizer reported 16 cases of short drug supply last year. Specifically, they included two cases with Duavive Tab. 0.45/20mg, two with Rapamune Tab. 2mg/0.5mg, one with Terramycin Eye Ointment, one with Pfizer Deferoxamine mesylate Inj. 500mg, and one with Pfizer Cytarabine Injection.
Next to Pfizer, Takeda Pharmaceuticals Korea’s medicines reported short supplies the most, with nine cases last year. They include three with Leuplin DPS Inj. 22.5mg/11.25mg/3.75mg, two with Dexilant DR Cap. 30mg, two with Pantoloc Tab. 20mg/40mg, and two with Nesina Met Tab. 12.5/1000mg, 12.5/500mg.
This year, multinational pharmaceutical firms reported five out of the six short drug supply cases. The five short supply cases include Pfizer’s Duavive, Takeda’s Pantoloc, and Leuplin. GSK’s Flixotide Diskus 250μg was in short supply in January and February.
On Thursday, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association criticized the multinational drugmakers’ distribution of drugs in a statement.
“Multinational pharmaceutical companies are repeatedly suspending and resuming the drug supply citing overseas manufacturing situations and delay in raw material supply,” the KPA said. “We request them to establish a sincere policy to coexist with drug suppliers including distributors and pharmacies and to make efforts to improve domestic drug distribution.”