Pharmaceutical products’ shortage to normalise by July-end — Firm

PETALING JAYA: The shortage of pharmaceutical products in the market is expected to normalise by the end of July, said Pharmaniaga Bhd deputy managing director Mohamed Iqbal Abdul Rahman.

He said the shortage took place due to multifold increases in demand and companies need time to produce and obtain raw materials.

“We have started producing more and we can see some normalisation by the end of this month and some of the products by end of August,” he told a press conference after signing a memorandum of collaboration (MoC) with China’s Suzhou Ronnsi Pharma Co Ltd, here, yesterday.

Mohamed Iqbal further clarified that the medical stocks were immediately depleted during the end of the first quarter of this year as Covid-19 cases went up to 30,000 in Malaysia.

“The replenishing requirement came in April and the spike happened in April, May and June, in which the biggest order came in,” he noted.

Besides that, he said the Shanghai lockdown also affected bringing in some of the raw materials and medical ingredients. Nevertheless, the group has been always looking for an alternative way to ensure minimal disruption, he said.

“We also had a series of discussions with the Ministry of Health (MoH) on solutions to manage medicine shortages in the country … the government has enough stock of paracetamol and there is a plan to move that stock into the private market via Pharmaniaga,” he said.

He also urged the public not to do panic buying, especially for paracetamol, as the stocks would be normalised soon.