Aspen ready to fit production to Covid-19 needs
JSE-listed Aspen Pharmacare will adjust production schedules at its manufacturing plants to ensure supplies of critical medicines, such as antibiotics, should SA’s Covid-19 outbreak trigger a sudden increase in demand, according to CEO Stephen Saad.
There is no vaccine yet for the virus that causes Covid-19, but there could well be a surge in demand for products such as antibiotics to treat secondary infections, he said. Aspen has also given the government an undertaking that it will alter its production plans to ensure continued supplies of other critical drugs, including those used for chronic conditions, should the need arise, he said.
“Aspen is in discussion with the government to make available, wherever feasible, its extensive SA oral solid and liquid pharmaceutical manufacturing operations for priority treatment of the SA public. This will entail adjusting some of Aspen’s production plans,” he said earlier this week.
In the fortnight since SA’s first case of Covid-19 was announced on March 5, the number of cases has rapidly risen to 150. President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of national disaster on Sunday in response to the growing outbreak.
Aspen has seen a spike in demand for over-the-counter painkillers, and cold and flu preparations, triggered by panic buying among consumers, Saad said. He urged consumers not to stockpile medicines, saying there would be no shortage if everyone purchased their usual volumes.
“We have enough to go around. We have a lot of stock and our supply chain is robust.”
The restrictions on exports of pharmaceutical products and ingredients announced by the Indian government in early March caused some concern, but were partly offset by the gradual resumption of manufacturing capacity in China, a key supplier of active pharmaceutical
THERE WILL BE NO
SHORTAGE IF EVERY
PERSON BUYS THEIR
USUAL VOLUMES. WE
HAVE A LOT OF
STOCK
ingredients (APIs), he said. Local pharmaceutical manufacturers also depend heavily on active pharmaceutical ingredients imported from India.
The Chinese authorities extended the Lunar New Year holiday to try to control transmission of Covid-19, shuttering businesses and imposing tight restrictions on travel and movement. Factories have gradually begun to resume production as the country brings its epidemic under control.