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Recently, influenza has broken out in many places. Oseltamivir , as the "flu miracle drug", has been out of stock, and even a box of it has been hard to find in some places. Phenomenon.
According to information released by the National Influenza Center, the positive rate of influenza virus testing in southern provinces continued to rise in June, and some provinces entered the peak season of summer, dominated by A (H3N2) subtype influenza virus . 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.
Some media contacted a number of chain pharmacies in Fuzhou, Xiamen , Changsha, Guilin , Wenzhou and other cities by phone as consumers. Staff said that oseltamivir has been out of stock in the near future. The supply is tight; the sales unit price has also increased to a certain extent. Different manufacturers have different prices, ranging from one hundred to two hundred yuan per box.
Many provinces have issued influenza warnings
Currently, many provinces in the south, including Guangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Hainan, have issued influenza warnings.
Guangdong Disease Control and Prevention stated that influenza surveillance data indicate that the province has entered the peak of influenza epidemics in summer. On June 21, Kang Min, director of the Guangdong Institute of Disease Control and Prevention, publicly analyzed that in the past two years, most citizens have worn masks when going out. This has a relatively good preventive effect on respiratory infectious diseases, but it has also accumulated a large amount of easy-to-use masks. touching people.
Jiangxi also gave the same prompt. On June 17, Jiangxi Disease Control and Prevention stated that influenza activity levels have increased in various parts of Jiangxi Province recently. Compared with the past two years, the summer influenza epidemic period started earlier, increased faster, and reached a higher peak. Since mid-March, the dominant strain of influenza in Jiangxi has been the current seasonal H3N2 subtype influenza strain, and the population's immunity to this strain is low.
Influenza virus is divided into four types: A, B, C and D. It is a seasonal respiratory infectious disease caused by influenza virus infecting . Currently, the main ones that infect people are influenza A and and influenza B . Influenza A uses different numbers of H and N to distinguish different subtypes; influenza B is divided into two lines: Victoria and Yamagata.
For people susceptible to influenza, the best way is to get vaccinated influenza vaccine . According to demographic data, the number of priority groups for influenza vaccination has reached 1.7 billion people in 2019.
But in fact, due to the continued new crown normalized prevention and control measures and residents’ increased awareness of prevention and control after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020, the level of influenza incidence across the country has dropped significantly in the past two years. National Center for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that the number of influenza cases in China has dropped from 1.14 million in 2020 to 420,000 in 2021.
The drastically fluctuating number of patients has caught both vaccine and treatment drug manufacturers off guard.
Why is oseltamivir out of stock?
Oseltamivir belongs to the neuraminidase inhibitor . It is an antiviral drug that requires a prescription. It can be used for the treatment of influenza A and B in adults and children 1 year old and above. It can also be used in adults. and prevention of influenza A and B in adolescents 13 years of age and older. In China, the antiviral drugs in the "Influenza Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (2020 Edition)" include oseltamivir.
However, the supply is tight this time, and the continuous increase in the number of influenza cases in some provinces and regions is regarded as the direct cause; in addition, changes in the production reserves of enterprises during the epidemic are also related to 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., said that in recent years, with the continuous improvement of people’s prevention and control of the new coronavirus epidemic and the increasing awareness of the prevention and control of epidemic diseases, large-scale influenza has also been better controlled. The sales of specific influenza drugs such as oseltamivir 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, a small number of people rush to buy and hoard goods. Occasionally, medicines may be in short supply.
It should be emphasized that the current anti-influenza virus drugs are not only oseltamivir. According to the "Influenza Diagnosis and Treatment Plan (2020 Edition)", 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 include not only oseltamivir, but also zanamivir, peramivir .
Regarding the preventive effect of oseltamivir, an infectious disease doctor at a tertiary hospital in Beijing once told reporters that he had encountered a situation where a flu patient at home came to the hospital to prescribe oseltamivir to the whole family. 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.
Which companies are producing?
With the influenza epidemic emerging in the south, oseltamivir has been out of stock in many pharmacies, and some pharmacies have even increased prices. Under the pressure of centralized procurement, companies should not be too unrestrained in their production decisions.
According to the National Food and Drug Administration database, 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 , Qilu Pharmaceutical , Kelun Pharmaceutical , Borui Pharmaceutical, Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Chinese and Western Pharmaceuticals and other enterprises.
It is worth noting that oseltamivir is also the seventh batch of nationally organized drugs to be collected and purchased. The number of qualified companies is 10. According to the centralized purchasing rules, 8 companies can be selected.
Among the many oseltamivir companies, Dongguang Pharmaceutical’s status 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 drugs. In the current official website introduction of
, Dongguang Pharmaceutical also stated that the company is currently the largest domestic manufacturer of oseltamivir. 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.
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.
However, according to Dongguangguang Pharmaceutical’s financial report, its total sales of oseltamivir granules/capsules in 2020 were approximately 2.068 billion yuan, a significant drop of 61% from 2019. Sales will continue to decline in 2021. Affected by this, Dongguang Pharmaceutical's stock price has also been depressed for a long time.
Due to the current flu season in the South, the anti-flu concept stock has shown signs of starting. The stock prices of pharmaceutical companies such as Dongguangguang Pharmaceutical, Hualan Bio, Jindik, and Changchun High-tech have all continued to rise recently.
Maybe this year, the anti-flu concept will have an easier time.
Source: WeChat public account "Caizhi Toutiao" Comprehensive from: China Economic Net, The Paper, Financial News, etc.
Photography: Ning Ying
Editor: A Li
Proofreading: Fenghua
Review: Gong Zimo
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