Recently, the topic of antipyretic drugs and ibuprofen being unavailable has flooded the Internet. Whether it is adults or children, whether online or offline, it is difficult to find the medicine.
Children's medicines have been sold at sky-high prices
Some scalpers have taken advantage of parents' anxiety and sold a bottle of Motrin (ibuprofen suspension) for children at a sky-high price of more than 3,000 yuan.
Adults who could not buy ibuprofen targeted Merrill Lynch and began to rush to buy medicines for children. Many strategies for adults to use Merrill Lynch even appeared one after another.
This behavior has caused children’s fever-reducing drugs, which were already in short supply, to become even more in demand.
Some netizens also have their own opinions on this. Some netizens believe that although Merrill Lynch is a drug for children, it is often wasted.
More netizens believe that Merrill Lynch itself is a drug. If adults have a fever, it is perfectly fine to use it, but drugs should not be hoarded, leaving families and children in need without medicine.
Unreasonable stockpiling of drugs leads to "drug shortage"
As the demand increases, the production pressure of original drug manufacturers increases sharply.
Even if we plan to expand production now, it will take time to go through the production cycle and logistics transportation. In addition, many products are chemical raw materials and have very strict environmental protection requirements. If companies want to expand production, they must go through a strict approval process. From production to inspection, it usually takes 5-7 days.
(Ibuprofen production process)
That’s why the supply is not timely. If a pharmaceutical factory is required to temporarily expand production within two or three months, it will be very difficult. It is also normal for a period of lull to occur.
In addition, the most critical factor is: the irrational hoarding of drugs that began in late November.
A parent once showed off the medicines he had hoarded. He went to 4 pharmacies and spent 1,500 yuan to buy 47 boxes of medicines, including ibuprofen. And there are not a few such people.
In fact, as the number of positive cases gradually increases, we should realize that most people cannot use so many drugs.
Generally speaking, a fever will last for about 3 days. Taking ibuprofen sustained-release capsules as an example, the medication interval is about 12 hours, and only a few capsules will be used during the entire course of the disease.
Therefore, it is not advisable to blindly hoard medicine.
In response to this market chaos, the country has also taken action, and various regions have introduced corresponding measures to ensure the supply of medicines.
Crack down on speculation and malicious hoarding of drugs
In Leshan, Sichuan, a drugstore sold ibuprofen for 56 yuan for a purchase price of 4 yuan, and was investigated by the local Municipal Supervision Bureau.
There are also stores where drug prices have increased by more than 240%. Warnings have been issued in many places. The scalpers in Tianjin who sold Merrill Lynch for thousands of dollars were also caught by the public security department.
Article 14 of the " Price Law "
Operators shall not engage in the following unfair pricing practices :
(1) Fabricating and disseminating price increase information, driving up prices, and promoting excessive increases in commodity prices;
(2) Purchasing, selling goods or providing services by raising or lowering the grade, thereby raising or lowering prices in disguise;
(3) Violating the provisions of laws and regulations to make huge profits;
(4) Other unfair pricing practices prohibited by laws and administrative regulations.
" Criminal Law " Article 225 [Illegal Business Crime]
Whoever violates state regulations and disrupts market order, and the circumstances are serious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention, and shall also or solely be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income; if the circumstances are particularly serious, he shall be sentenced to not less than five years in prison, and shall be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income or have his property confiscated.
In addition, many cities have begun to put antipyretics on the market every day, and taking into account actual demand, the drugs are sold in pieces. Shandong, Changsha and other places have converted some nucleic acid sampling houses into street fever diagnosis and treatment stations.
(Upgraded fever diagnosis and treatment stations in many places in Shandong)
Some pharmaceutical companies also said that the supply of drugs will return to normal from late this month to early January.
Therefore, don’t worry if you can’t buy medicine at the moment. There are many Chinese and Western medicines to choose from from prevention to treatment. We don’t need to smell “yang”, let alone blindly stock up on one or two medicines to create panic buying. The most important thing is to protect yourself!
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