A US shortage of influenza treatment Tamiflu was caused in part by distributors failing to stock up before the flu season, according to the head of one of the largest generic manufacturers of the drug.
(Bloomberg) — A US shortage of influenza treatment Tamiflu was caused in part by distributors failing to stock up before the flu season, according to the head of one of the largest generic manufacturers of the drug.
Chirag Patel, co-chief executive officer of Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc., told investors at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference that his company had been asking US buyers to order sufficient quantities of the medicine since April. That’s when the flu season began in Australia, and the severity of influenza there can foreshadow what’s in store for the US.
“They did not place enough orders on time,” Patel said. He said his company has been working 24/7 to manufacture the drug once the orders did come in.
Drug companies sell products like generic Tamiflu to buying groups, which are related to wholesalers and pharmacies. The three major buying groups didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Tamiflu has been in short supply over the past two months. At the end of December, federal health officials released some reserves of the drug from the Strategic National Stockpile, a stash of medicines that’s supposed to be used for health emergencies.
The drug can generally shorten the duration of flu symptoms by a day, and it’s especially important for people at high risk of developing complications from the disease, like children, the elderly, and hospitalized people.
For the first two years of Covid-19, barely anyone in the US got severely ill with influenza as mask-wearing and closures of public spaces like schools limited the spread of the disease.
Patel said that in the first flu season of Covid-19, buyers ordered the normal amount of generic Tamiflu, but they didn’t sell it, so they returned it to Amneal at full cost.
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