By Ankur Banerjee
Feb 13 (Reuters) - Shortages and potential price increases
of generic drugs from India loom if the coronavirus outbreak
disrupts suppliers of pharmaceutical ingredients in China past
April, according to industry experts.
An important supplier of generic drugs to the world, Indian
companies procure almost 70% of the active pharmaceutical
ingredients (APIs) for their medicines from China.
India's generic drugmakers say they currently have enough
API supplies from China to cover their operations for up to
about three months.
"We are comfortably placed with 8 to 10 weeks of key
inventory in place," said Debabrata Chakravorty, head of global
sourcing and supply chain for Lupin Ltd, adding that
the company does have some local suppliers for ingredients.
Optimism that the worst of the outbreak centered in China's
Hubei province and its capital Wuhan would be over by April took
a major hit late on Wednesday. Chinese health officials, using a
broader method of confirming coronavirus cases, said they shot
up by nearly 15,000 in Hubei with total deaths in China nearing
1,400.
The outbreak and severe travel restrictions aimed at
containing its spread has taken a toll on the world's second
largest economy and disrupted international businesses dependant
on Chinese supplies.
An extended outbreak that limits the volume of active
ingredients and drugs available for export from China could lead
to drug shortages and price increases, particularly in the
United States - where prices are subject to market forces -
according to rating agency Moody's.
India supplies nearly a third of medicines sold in the
United States, the world's largest and most lucrative healthcare
market.
Daara Patel, secretary general of the Indian Drug
Manufacturers Association, which represents over 900 drug
producers, said he expects supplies to be disrupted from April.
Patel said vitamins and antibiotics are likely to be among
the hardest hit as India is a major global producer of both.
International pharmaceutical companies including Swiss
drugmaker Novartis AG and Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline
Plc have so far predicted minimal disruption in the near
term to their supply chain.
"Companies are continuously monitoring the situation and are
working proactively to prevent and mitigate potential
shortages," Holly Campbell, spokeswoman for pharmaceutical
industry trade group PhRMA, said by email.
Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian
Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) trade group, said there are no API
shortages at the moment because drugmakers had stocked up on
inventory ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in China, which
was later extended in a further effort to contain the virus.
Major Indian generic drugmakers and IPA members Cipla Ltd
and Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd did
not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee, Manas Mishra in Bengaluru, Zeba
Siddiqui in New Delhi and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by
Bill Berkrot)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)