Keeping an eye on China Covid situation: India ready to export fever medicines to Beijing
As China struggles to contain the surge in Covid cases, India has said it is ready to export fever medicines to China, the chairperson of an Indian drug export body.
Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) told Reuters. India, one of the world’s biggest drug makers, said it is ready to help China as the new Omicron sub-variant BF.7 continues to fuel the coronavirus infections resulting in overflowing crematoriums and hospitals struggling to find beds.
India’s foreign ministry said the country, one of the biggest makers of generic medicines in the world, was ready to help China, reported Reuters. After days of protest against the stringent zero Covid-19 policy measures, China eased the restrictions which triggered a surge in infections.
This has led to a high demand for fever medicines and virus test kits on the mainland, leading to shops imposing limits on how much customers can buy and drugmakers ramping up production.
SHORTAGE OF MEDICINES IN CHINA
There are strict limits on what residents can buy, CNN said in a report. They can choose only one form of a particular fever drug, for example, either the liquid or tablet form of ibuprofen. There has been widespread shortages of the most common drugs used to alleviate flu-like symptoms.
Berlin has already sent its first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China to be administered initially to German expatriates, a German government spokesperson said on Wednesday, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.
FEVER MEDICINES’ DEMAND GO UP
The demand for fever medicines such as Ibuprofen and paracetamol is facing a shortage in China but the demand remains high.
“Marketing queries are coming to drugmakers asking for quotes on ibuprofen and paracetamol,” Sahil Munjal, chairperson of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), told Reuters.
“Ibuprofen and paracetamol are facing a shortage in China at the moment. They are high in demand.”
“We are keeping an eye on the Covid situation in China,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a news briefing. “We have always helped other countries as the pharmacy of the world.”
China’s embassy in New Delhi is yet to respond to the development.
India’s pharma exports to China accounted for just 1.4 per cent of its overall exports in 2021/22, according to Pharmexcil’s latest annual report. The United States remains India’s largest destination for drug exports.