Pretoria – The Department of Health says it is busy addressing problems affecting the supply of various medicines to both the private and public sectors.
On Wednesday, department spokesperson Joe Maila said the supply of about 80 medicines had been resolved as the suppliers had already started delivering the medicines.
The country was facing a limited supply of various medicines because of a global shortage of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
Maila said all outstanding orders in the group of 51 medicines would be supplied within the next three to four weeks.
“In the next group of 21 medicines, the supply problems remain, since suppliers would not be able to resolve medicine supplies within the next four weeks and therefore the National Department of Health will secure supplies of medicines from other international suppliers.
“In the interim, alternative therapeutic medicines will have to be prescribed,” Maila said.
Antiretroviral medicines were not affected by manufacturer supply problems.
“There were problems with the supply of Abacavir, Ritonavir/Lopinavir combination and Ritonavir. However, suppliers have resolved these problems and now all outstanding orders have been delivered to depots,” he said.
Maila said the penicillins, particularly benzyl penicillin, was still facing a global supply problem.
A potential source of API supply had been identified in Germany.
“When the stock is made available, it will need to be used judiciously. In the interim clinicians will be advised on how to manage infections with appropriate alternatives,” he said.
The department has also imported the BCG Vaccine as there was a shortage.
The stock is currently in the country and awaiting quality release from the National Control Laboratory.
“Digoxin is also in short supply due to manufacturing problems - limited availability of the APIs.
“The local manufacturer has, however, received supplies and released some stock into the market last week,” Maila said.
He said patients may receive less stock than usual due to supply constraints.
The Medicines Control Council (MCC) Registrar Joey Gouws said the MCC has resolved to allow for the sourcing of APIs from alternative manufacturing sites that have been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“This will allow for expedited availability of some medicines, once an application for an API variation has been submitted, as MCC will use the WHO information to facilitate approval to ensure that any medicine that is in short supply is accessed,” Gouws said.
He said the MCC has a list of APIs that are pre-qualified by the WHO.
The MCC is a statutory health council responsible for the appropriate regulation of medicines, scheduled substances and medical devices, on the basis of efficacy, safety and quality. – SAnews.gov.za
