While Canadian businesses and consumers have focused on potential inventory shortages in sectors like consumer electronics as a result of COVID-19-related supply disruptions, another sector - pharmaceuticals - may have been hit just as hard.
That’s the observation of Clint Mahlman, president and COO at B.C.-based London Drugs. Mahlman broke down the three key areas where the COVID-19 outbreak has impacted the store chain’s business the most: Direct imports from China, personal electronics and pharmaceuticals. And Mahlman emphasized that the third has attracted by far the least amount of public attention - despite possibly being of an even higher level of importance.
“While China is not a manufacturer of what we refer to as finished doses, they are the world’s largest supplier of non-active ingredients to some of the world’s largest drug manufacturers,” Mahlman said, referring to substances such as binding agents and fillers found in drug products. “For example, India is the world’s largest manufacturer of generic drugs… and Canadians rely very heavily on this robust supply chain. Well, what has been happening is that China has not been able to provide the non-active ingredients; and with India being their biggest customer, we are starting to get notices of generic drugs being impacted in their future availability.”
Mahlman said drug stores in Canada have been scrambling to find alternatives for customers as the situation is just starting to unfold, and a March 3 decision from India to limit the export of 26 active pharmaceutical ingredients has placed further stress on B.C.’s generic drug market.
“We are not really sure at this point why they are doing that, whether they are retaining stock for their own purposes or are impacted by China,” he said. “But we are starting to see a lot of this type of supply-chain impact.”
The situation is unfolding has the Canadian market has already seen a shortage of drugs in the last few years, and the new supply-line holdups are now adding new stresses to local pharmacists - even if an alternative drug can be found to replace the original product being disrupted in production/shipping.
“Government and private medical plans only allow certain generic drugs to be covered under the plans,” Mahlman said. “if a drug is not available, it requires a pharmacist to get permission from doctors to switch, and to re-educating patients on how this will be re-imbursed. The pharmacists’ time is going to be extraordinarily impacted, and in many cases, customers are still frustrated they have to switch their pharmaceuticals.”
He added that consumers should be understanding of the current supply-chain disruptions and be aware that many different parties are coordinating to make sure everyone gets an adequate supply of medical goods.
