Bayer is having trouble supplying its drug in the local market as the company is in the process of overhauling its overseas production plants.

According to related industry officials, Myvlar and Melian, Bayer's birth control pills, will no longer be on the market until at least next March due to the relocation of Bayer's production plants.

Myvlar and Melian are Bayer's third-generation birth control pills, which Dong-A Pharmaceutical is supplying in the local market after obtaining sale rights for the drugs in 2015.

Myvlar ranked second in the local birth control market with sales of about 1.9 billion won ($1.5 million) in the first half of this year and Melia about 700 million won. Given the fact that the top-selling birth control pill Alvogen's Mercilon recorded sales of 5.4 billion over the same period, the supply-demand imbalance is expected to widen the gap between Myvlar and Mercilon.

"The company is also in disarray as we have been trying to bridge the sale gap against Mercilon," a Dong-A Pharmaceutical official said. "We are trying to restock both items as soon as possible."

The company expects that the supply shortage problem will be resolved in the first quarter of next year, he added.

Birth control pills are not the only items in short supply, however.

Bayer's antibiotic Ciprobay 250mg 100T, an antibiotic drug sold by Chong Kun Dang, will also be out of stock until next September. Chong Kun Dang has temporarily removed Ciprobay 250mg from the list of reimbursed drugs.

Besides, the sales of Adalat OROS 60mg and Adalat Soft Cap. 5mg, which are directly being distributed, will also be suspended.

Bayer said it would resume the supply of Adalat Oros tablets from March 2020, while halting supply for Adalat Soft Cap. 5mg permanently.

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