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Taiwan is considering controls on bulk purchases of Panadol as a critical shortage of pain and fever drugs in mainland China spurs a buying spree on the island.
Demand for Panadol, a well-known paracetamol brand manufactured by UK-based Haleon Plc, had risen sharply in Taiwan over the past week, with many pharmacies running out, Taiwanese health authorities said.
They said officials might be forced to take action to control the situation if locals kept buying the drug in unusually large quantities, with many of the supplies being sent to the mainland.
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“It is true that there is a buying spree of this particular [paracetamol] brand Panadol across Taiwan,” health minister Hsueh Jui-yuan said on Wednesday.
“We are closely monitoring the situation as well as the supply and demand conditions of the pharmaceutical market in Taiwan,” he said, after reporters pressed him on whether there would be any official action to control the sudden surge in demand.
Wang Pi-sheng, head of Taiwan’s epidemic control command centre, said they had carried out a survey of pharmacies and found Panadol stocks were fast running out.
“There have been bulk purchases of Panadol resulting in shortages of supplies of the medicine in Taiwan. In view of this, we have contacted the manufacturer to see if they could speed up shipments to help meet the market demand,” Wang said.
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He called on the public not to stockpile or buy the medicine in large quantities for sending overseas.
“The command centre will continue to monitor the situation and evaluate if active measures should be taken in response,” he said.
Similar medicines from brands other than Panadol were in ample supply, so there was no need for the public to hoard the drug or worry about Taiwan running out of pain and fever-relief medication, Wang said.
Panadol had been selling out fast since early last week, local chemists reported, mainly due to buyers snapping up the drug for friends and relatives on the mainland, which is battling a surge in coronavirus infections after zero-Covid controls were significantly relaxed.
“I ordered 100 boxes of Panadol last week, and [the distributor] told me they could send me just 20 boxes because of the pressing demand. The day the order arrived, it was sold out almost immediately,” a pharmacy owner in Taipei said.
“Those who came for Panadol told us they wanted to buy as many [boxes] as possible as they needed to send them to their mainland relatives,” she said.
Millions of Chinese have been left struggling to find painkillers and fever medicines to ease Covid-19 symptoms, after an unprecedented spike in cases following the sudden rollback of pandemic restrictions nationwide on December 7.
The Taipei pharmacy owner said the distributor told her only 10 boxes of Panadol would be available for her next order.
Asked if her store should control sales of the medicine, she said buyers were already restricted to just one box as stocks were running out.
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Chiu Chien-chiang, deputy secretary general of the Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists Associations, said Panadol supplies were already tight in Taiwan since a Covid-19 spike in May, and the recent shortage in mainland China had made the situation worse on the island.
“The federation asked all drug stores in Taiwan to report on purchase records. According to their report, buyers who snapped up five to 20 boxes were mostly Chinese spouses of local residents, mainland-based Taiwanese businessmen, and locals buying for their friends and relatives in [mainland] China,” Chiu said.
He said anyone sending medicines, including Panadol, to the mainland in bulk would be fined if the shipment was intercepted by Taiwanese customs. The same applied to those taking large quantities to the mainland in person.
According to Taiwan’s pharmaceutical regulations, only qualified drug suppliers are allowed to export medicines in large shipments.
Bulk purchases that might affect domestic supply are punishable by fines and seizure of the products.
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