“No shortage of cold medicine and fever reducers… Fully operational”
“There is no supply and demand imbalance, but some pharmacies are showing signs of hoarding”
As the number of COVID-19 patients rapidly increases, it has become difficult to obtain COVID-19 treatments and diagnostic kits even if one wants to. As demand for cold medicines and fever reducers, which have been sold out every time a COVID-19 outbreak occurs, has also increased, pharmaceutical companies have begun operating their production plants at full capacity.
According to industry sources on the 18th, Daewon Pharmaceutical and Yuhan Corporation recently began full-scale operation of their cold medicine production plants as signs of a COVID-19 resurgence began to appear.
Daewon Pharmaceutical’s cold medicine brand ‘Coldaewon’, the expectorant ‘Kodaewon’, and Yuhan Corporation’s expectorant ‘Kopusyrup’ are medicines that were constantly sold out during the last epidemic.
Although there is currently no overall shortage of cold medicine, the industry explains that some pharmacies are hoarding the medicine due to concerns about a supply shortage.
A pharmaceutical industry insider said, “Demand for cold medicine has skyrocketed recently, so we are operating at full capacity,” adding, “There is no nationwide shortage of cold medicine and fever reducers, but some pharmacies are experiencing shortages and there is also a panic buying mentality due to anxiety, so we are operating at full capacity in three shifts.”
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has nearly doubled every week over the past four weeks: 226 in the third week of July, 472 in the fourth week of July, 869 in the first week of August, and 1,357 in the second week of August. The number of 1,357 in the second week of August is the highest this year.
Patients aged 65 and older were the largest group at 65.4% of all hospitalized patients, followed by those aged 50 to 64 at 18.2%.
This outbreak is being led by the KP.3 variant virus, a sub-lineage of Omicron. The KP.3 variant share was 45.5% as of last month, up 33.4 percentage points (P) from June. KP.3 is showing a trend of increasing worldwide, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is also monitoring it as a monitoring variant.
The supply of COVID-19 treatments such as Paxrobid and Lagebrio is severely insufficient. According to data received by Han Ji-ah, a member of the People Power Party’s Welfare Committee, from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of COVID-19 treatment requests from pharmacies and medical institutions nationwide in the first week of August was 198,000, but the supply was only 33,000. This is 16.7% of the number of requests. These drugs are recommended for high-risk groups such as the elderly and immunocompromised.
As the demand for cold medicine also increased, Hong Jeong-ik, director of the Infectious Disease Policy Bureau of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said, “If the symptoms are similar, you can take cold medicine instead of COVID-19 treatment,” and “Most young people can control it with fever reducers, like they would with a general respiratory infection.”
A pharmacist in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul said, “The concern over the supply and demand of cold medicine and fever reducers is not due to a shortage of supply, but rather due to hoarding by some pharmacies. There will not be a shortage like last year.”
He continued, “However, the situation is different for diagnostic kits and treatments.” He added, “Diagnostic kits used to cost 2,000 won for one (two-pack), but then went up to 4,000 won, and now you can’t get them even if you order them for 4,800 won. It’s not that there really aren’t any products, but it’s worrisome that, like with masks in the early stages of COVID-19, middlemen appear to be holding off on releasing the products until the prices go up further.”
[서울=뉴시스]
2024-08-17 22:23:02