Drug regulator sees ‘no problems’ in supply of test kits, cold medicines amid Covid-19 resurge

Faced with resurging Covid-19 and mounting concerns about possible supply shortages of diagnosis kits and cold medicines, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) said, “There are no abnormalities in supply and production trends.”

The ministry added that it focuses on monitoring to ensure that medical products, such as cold medicines and diagnostic kits, can be supplied smoothly to the market.

The MFDS has been monitoring the market situation since Covid-19 was still the pandemic, receiving weekly reports from manufacturers on the production, import, sales, and inventory of 1,665 items, including cough and cold medicines. Since March, the ministry has established a drug management support team to manage medicines' supply and demand tightly.

However, concerns are mounting in the medical field that the demand for cold medicines may increase further as stocks of Covid-19 drugs, including Paxlovid, are running low.

“We are monitoring the demand for cold medicines in light of the recent increase due to Covid-19 patients,” a ministry official said. “As a result of monitoring, there is no particular abnormality in the recent production and supply trends of cold medicines. If an abnormality is detected, we will prepare and provide support through the public-private council.”

Recently, the ministry’s Medical Device Safety Bureau also checked the supply and demand situation with manufacturers due to concerns about shortages and price spikes of diagnostic kits.

According to the report, nine of the largest manufacturing companies produced and shipped more than 2.57 million Covd-19 self-test kits from Aug. 8 to 16. Since mid-August, production has increased up to threefold as demand has increased amid the spread of the coronavirus.

“Covid-19 diagnostic kits were also not produced in large numbers due to low demand in the market after the pandemic,” the ministry official said. “However, since the scale of domestic diagnostic kit manufacturing is substantial, we do not expect a situation where there will be a shortage of diagnostic kits or a sharp increase in prices once they start production in earnest.”

As domestic diagnostic kit manufacturers produced up to about 40 million self-test kits per week during the pandemic in 2022, the ministry forecasts there should be no problem securing supplies even if Covid-19 infection spreads further.

The ministry also emphasized the rapid processing of national shipment approvals to ensure a quick supply of Covid-19 vaccines, saying it would actively communicate with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) in case emergency use approvals are needed.

“We are responding internally to the resurge of Covid-19, and each department is moving busily,” the official said. “We will do our best to ensure that the supply of medical products is not destabilized.”