Pharmaceutical and medical supplies manufacturers on Monday said that high demand for vitamins and specific medicines has led to an “artificial shortage” of these drugs.
According to Jannette Jakosalem of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), medicines and medical supplies, particularly vitamins and supplements, should have lasted three to four months but only lasted for one month since the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine was implemented.
She said the pharmaceutical industry have been addressing the “artificial shortage” of specific drugs by “regularly replenishing the drugstores.”
“Our main consideration while tackling the COVID-19 crisis is not only the vitamins and supplements, but even maintenance medicines, such as for diabetes and hypertension. We want to ensure that there is regular supply of prescription drugs in the pharmacies,” Jakosalem said.
The group appealed to the government to ensure the unhampered distribution of medicines. It asked that medicines should also be immediately released in ports because these are often urgently needed by hospitals and patients.
“While we want to ensure that medicines will not go out of stock, we have been experiencing limitations in the delivery due to the lockdown. Medicines coming from Metro Manila used to be delivered to other areas by commercial flights,” Jakosalem said.
She assured that the pharmaceutical industry is working to increase the supply and meet the demand of consumers.
“What we have been doing the past few weeks, we are chartering planes to deliver medicines to the Visayas and Mindanao. While it is not as normal and as regular as it used to, we can only ensure that medicines will arrive at least once a week. However, we admit that delivery to island communities remain a challenge,” she added.
“Pharmacies are now doubling their manufacturing requests. We have local manufacturers that have already complied to increase the supply of medicines. However, we also have imported requirements that need a longer lead time thus could not immediately respond to increasing the supply,” she said. (Ellalyn De Vera-Ruiz)
