The Paper reporter Li Xiaoxiao and Shao Bingyan
“There is no stock now, it has been out of stock for a long time!”
“It is temporarily out of stock, and I am not sure when it will be available. ”
“There is a shortage everywhere, and I can’t buy it anywhere. "
" is in stock, but only the last two boxes are available. Buy it as soon as possible. "
Recently, many netizens have reported that the antiviral drug is known as the " influenza miracle cure". Oseltamivir is out of stock. On June 27th and 28th, The Paper reporter contacted a number of chain pharmacies in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Changsha, Guilin, Wenzhou and other cities by phone as a consumer. The staff all said that the Not only is the medicine out of stock or in short supply at the pharmacy where it is located, but the city where it is located has also been facing this problem recently.
Online pharmacies are also experiencing tight supply of oseltamivir.
Online pharmacies are also selling very hot oseltamivir. The reporter noticed that some online pharmacies currently have “Only 2 pieces left” and “Only 2 items left” on their product pages. 5 pieces left" and other prompts. Ali Health Pharmacy data shows that since June (as of the 26th), the purchase volume of oseltamivir has increased by 715% compared with the whole month of May, with the purchase volume in Fujian, Jiangxi, Hainan and other provinces growing the fastest. Due to the shortage of
, the sales unit price of oseltamivir also increased to a certain extent.
A resident of a southern city told reporters that not long ago, a relative's child got the flu, and the hospital could still prescribe oseltamivir normally, but he went to an offline pharmacy to prepare some medicine, and was told that only the goods would be delivered that day. 10 boxes, only the last two boxes are left, "25mg*10 oseltamivir granules, more than 100 yuan per box", which obviously feels more expensive than before. At present, on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, the price of a single box of the above specifications ranges from 80 yuan to 90 yuan.
What is oseltamivir? Which companies are producing?
Different from the common cold , influenza is an infectious disease caused by influenza virus . For the elderly, children, pregnant women, patients with chronic diseases and other people with low immunity, it is more likely to cause pneumonia, myocarditis and other complications , threatening life and health.
Oseltamivir is a neuraminidase inhibitor . It is an antiviral drug that requires a prescription. It can be used for the treatment of influenza A and type B in adults and children 1 year old and above. It can also be used Prevention of influenza A and B in adults and adolescents 13 years of age and older. In China, the antiviral drugs in the "Influenza Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (2020 Edition)" include oseltamivir.
It should be emphasized that the current anti-influenza virus drugs are not only oseltamivir. According to the above-mentioned "Plan", there are three major categories of anti-influenza virus drugs currently on the market in China: neuraminidase inhibitors, hemagglutinin inhibitors and M2 ion channel blockers. Among them, neuraminidase inhibitors not only include osestat Wei, also includes zanamivir, peramivir .
Part of the "Influenza Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (2020 Edition)"
Regarding the preventive effect of oseltamivir, an infectious disease doctor at a tertiary hospital in Beijing once told reporters that he had encountered a flu patient at home and came to the hospital to give him treatment. The whole family's prescription of oseltamivir. From a medical point of view, taking this medicine does have the effect of preventing influenza, but it is not a routine prevention method. It is usually only recommended for people who are in close contact with influenza patients and are prone to severe illness from influenza to take medicine for prevention. The best way to prevent influenza is Flu vaccine.
Source of some domestic approval documents for oseltamivir: National Food and Drug Administration database
Looking back from the perspective of R&D and commercialization, oseltamivir was first developed by Gilead . Later, the patent was transferred to Roche, and Roche also became Oseltamivir. Tasvir is the original manufacturer and the original drug was launched in China in 2002. The database of the State Food and Drug Administration shows that in addition to the original drug, there are currently 19 domestic batch numbers of oseltamivir in China, covering granules, capsules, dry suspensions, and other dosage forms. The manufacturing companies behind them include Dongguang Pharmaceutical and Qilu Pharmaceutical. , Kelun Pharmaceutical (002422), Borui Pharmaceutical, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Chinese and Western Pharmaceuticals and other enterprises.
What is worth noting is that oseltamivir is the seventh batch of nationally organized drugs to be collected through centralized procurement. The number of companies that meet the qualifications for application is 10. According to the centralized procurement rules, 8 companies can be selected in the end.
Among the many oseltamivir companies, the status of Dongguangguang Pharmaceutical (1558.HK) cannot be ignored.
In 2006, Dongguang Pharmaceutical obtained Roche’s patent license for oseltamivir in China. According to Minenet data, Minenet data shows that in 2019, among the TOP10 terminal chemical systemic antiviral drug brands in China’s public medical institutions, Dongguangguang Pharmaceutical’s oseltamivir phosphate granules and oseltamivir phosphate capsules Ranked first and fourth respectively, with market shares of 17.45% and 7.57%, far exceeding the share of original research drugs. In the current official website introduction of
, Dongguang Pharmaceutical also stated that the company is currently the largest manufacturer of oseltamivir in China. It can be seen from the financial data that in 2019 and 2020, the sales of oseltamivir series products accounted for about 90% of its total revenue.
Dongguang Pharmaceutical, which relies heavily on oseltamivir as a single product, has not continued its impressive performance. The 2021 financial report shows that the turnover of oseltamivir phosphate granules is 469.48 million yuan, and the turnover of oseltamivir phosphate capsules is 85.11 million yuan, which together account for about 60% of the total turnover.
Why is oseltamivir out of stock?
In fact, this is not the first time that oseltamivir has been out of stock. In early 2018 and at the end of 2019, shortages of oseltamivir were reported in some areas.
The supply is tight this time, and the continued increase in the number of influenza cases in some provinces and regions is considered to be the direct cause.
According to information released by the National Influenza Center, the positivity rate of influenza virus tests in southern provinces continued to rise in June, and some provinces entered the peak season of summer, dominated by subtype A (H3N2) influenza viruses. In the week of June 6th to June 12th, the proportion of influenza-like cases reported by sentinel hospitals in southern provinces accounted for 5.8% of outpatient visits, which was higher than the 5.1% level of the previous week and higher than the level of the same period from 2019 to 2021, a record reached a new high for the same period in recent years.
It is worth noting that influenza is often more common in autumn and winter. The number of cases this summer has surprised many people. In fact, influenza is not a disease unique to autumn and winter.
"Technical Guidelines for Influenza Vaccination in China (2021-2022)" mentioned that influenza manifests as seasonal epidemics and high incidences in temperate areas every winter and spring. In tropical areas, especially in Asia, the seasonality of influenza is highly diverse. There are half-year or full-year periodic epidemics, and there are also year-round cycles.
According to the above-mentioned "Guide", in 2013, a study on influenza seasonality in different regions of my country showed that the annual periodicity of my country's A influenza increased with increasing latitude, and showed diverse spatial patterns and seasonal characteristics: The northern provinces north of 33 degrees north latitude have a winter epidemic pattern, with a single annual peak from January to February every year; the southernmost provinces south of 27 degrees north latitude, have a single annual peak from April to June every year; the mid-latitude areas in between , the double cycle peaks from January to February and June to August every year.
From the supply side, there is a certain relationship between changes in the company's production reserves during the epidemic and shortages.
As early as August 2021, Dongguang Pharmaceutical announced that the company's net profit fell sharply. The reason was that the new crown epidemic superimposed the peak flu season in early 2020, and terminal hospitals had more stocks of the company's oseltamivir. After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the number of patients in terminal hospitals dropped sharply, and the number of prescriptions also dropped. Since last year, products have been in the destocking stage.
Deng Zhidong, general manager of Hainan Boao Medical Technology Co., Ltd., told The Paper that in recent years, as people’s awareness of the prevention and control of the new coronavirus epidemic and the prevention and control of epidemic diseases have continued to increase, large-scale influenza has also been better treated. Control, the sales of oseltamivir and other specific influenza drugs have been declining sharply year after year, and the production and reserves of oseltamivir by relevant pharmaceutical companies have also been significantly reduced. When influenza spreads, and a small number of people With looting and hoarding, the supply of medicines will easily become tight.
Regarding this wave of oseltamivir shortages, some media quoted relevant people from Dongguang Pharmaceutical as saying that the company is currently at full production and sales, and is also actively making production adjustments to prepare sufficient stocks to deal with the current influenza. outbreak.
Borui Pharmaceutical's parent company is the listed company Borui Pharmaceutical (688166). On June 23, Borui Pharmaceutical received the "Oseltamivir Phosphate Dry Suspension" "Drug Registration" approved and issued by the State Food and Drug Administration. Certificate". At the same time, the company also has production approval documents for oseltamivir phosphate capsules and raw materials. On June 27, the reporter contacted the staff of the Securities Affairs Department of Borui Pharmaceuticals as an investor and said that the company would make (capacity) adjustments based on market demand.
Deng Zhidong believes that to deal with the shortage of certain drugs, on the one hand, it is necessary to organize manpower and material resources to increase production and supply; on the other hand, the country should establish an emergency reserve system for conventional drugs to ensure "guaranteed supply and stable prices" for conventional essential drugs. .
Regarding whether there is a problem with increasing production capacity, Deng Zhidong believes that as long as there is market demand, production capacity is not difficult. However, some pharmaceutical practitioners told The Paper that for pharmaceutical companies, such drugs with unstable market demand will not expand production capacity at will. There are many considerations behind this, including raw materials, production lines, and personnel.
Senior editor of this issue Xingtan
