JSE-listed local pharmaceutical manufacturers Aspen Pharmacare and Adcock Ingram say the coronavirus outbreak in China poses no immediate risk to production, as they have buffer stocks of imports used to formulate essential drugs. Business Day reports that the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted trade and travel, and wreaked havoc on the financial markets.
Many factories in China were still closed on Monday, though millions of people returned to work after the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, which had been extended by the government to try to contain the spread of the disease. The report says China is one of the world’s big suppliers of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to formulate medicines, particularly for widely used generics.
Aspen Pharmacare said it saw no immediate risk of supply-chain disruption for its portfolio of essential medicines that incorporated Chinese APIs, as the company routinely held a buffer stock of two to three months. Adcock Ingram’s spokesperson, Kavitha Singh, is quoted in the report as saying that the company did not foresee a material risk in the supply chain in the short term.
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