The domestic urology clinics have fluctuated between hopes and fears recently because of perfusate used to operate prostatomegaly and other urinary diseases by using endoscope.
CJ HealthcareCJ헬스케어, the only company to manufacture and sell the perfusate, Urosol Solution, announced it would stop producing it earlier this month. To the great relief of domestic urologists, however, the company reversed its decision two weeks later, saying it would be the “temporary suspension of production.”
On June 13, CJ Healthcare sent official documents to urology clinics throughout the country, notifying them it would stop producing Urosol Soln. 3L. “We will halt the production of Urosol Soln. 3,000 ml due to the adjustment of production lines,” the document said. “We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by suspended production.”
The news drove the domestic urology clinics into a state of emergency. There are two types of devices used for an endoscopic surgical procedure to treat prostate and bladder diseases -- monopolar and bipolar. Most urology clinics use monopolar devices that require perfusate. On the other hand, bipolar devices use saline solution in surgery because electric current flows only inside the instrument.
If the clinics don’t shift to bipolar devices, they have to stop endoscopic surgeries when the stockpiles of Urosol Soln. run out. And it reportedly takes 30 million won ($26,300) to buy the bipolar device.
“The monopolar device is more common than the bipolar device. If there isn’t Urosol Soln., we can’t conduct endoscopic surgery with the monopolar device,” a urologist said. “The alternative is to shift to the bipolar device using saline solution, but I am not sure I have to change the device right now.”
Not just clinics but urology departments at most university hospitals and small- and medium-sized hospitals are using both monopolar and bipolar devices. A urology department of a university hospital in Seoul told its doctors to refrain from using monopolar devices to the maximum,
As the controversy spreads, CJ Healthcare belatedly set about to calm it down, saying it was the “temporary suspension of production.”
“We are planning to resume its production on July 3,” a company official said Tuesday. “As the produced Urosol Soln. has to go through a sterility test for 15 days, it will reappear in the market within next month.”
"When the government cancels product approval or businesses decide to stop production, we use the term ‘supply stoppage,’ instead of ‘production stoppage,’’’ the official said. “When we wrote ‘production stoppage’ in the documents, it did not mean we would not produce it anymore.”
As to why it did not make clear it was the temporary production stoppage, the company official said it was because they could not know exactly when the readjustment of production lines would be over.
“We are sorry for the inconvenience caused by the suspension of its supply for about one month. And we caused confusion by failing to provide sufficient explanation,” he said. “As the manufacturer of basic and special fluids, CJ Healthcare’s basic position is to continue to supply out products as long as there are people who need even one pack of them.”