panadol shortage

 Why  Panadol isn't available in Pakistan?

Paracetamol also known as acetaminophen which is sold under the brand name ( Panadol,Disprol,Calpol and Febrol) falls under the class of analgesic ( pain killer) and anti pyretic ( fever reliever). Panadol is widely used to reduce or alleviate pain caused by headache,osteoarthritis,menstrual cramps it also reduces fever but as compare to (N.S.A.I.Ds) non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs, it doesn't reduces inflammation

Panadol is widely used brand across the Pakistan due to its low price and higher efficacy as compare to other analgesics and anti pyretics

According to  Bilal who is the pharmacist at one of the outlet of re known chain pharmacy in Lahore states that almost 96% patients who step in the pharmacy ask for the panadol either they need it or not, which is quite a huge figure and the reason for this is that  

lower price , large therapeutic window,lesser side effects and because it can be administered easily.

Paracetamol has been a quite demanding medicine since beginning but 1st COVID then dengue and now flood made the situation even worse.

here are the reasons why this shortage took place

Gap between the demand and supply:

Panadol is the highest selling brand in the Pakistan and its demand increased  2 to 3 folds specially in the flood hit areas where people are being affected because of dengue and malaria fever as well as typhoid and respiratory problems but in response of the higher demand, production of the product under discussion has been reduced due to various reasons and the gap between demand and supply caused the shortage in the market

Depreciation of Rupee against dollar:

Depreciation of rupee against dollar is also the main reason for this shortage as the active pharmaceutical ingredient(API) which is Acetaminophen, is being imported from China and America so its impossible for manufacturer to sell the product at lower cost than its production cost as the medicine cost is the same while imported raw materials costs has increased

Cost of the medicine and D.R.A.P:

In Feb 2022, D.R.A.P(Drug regulatory authority of  Pakistan) issued show cause notice to 15 pharmaceutical companies to answer the question that why are they not meeting up the demand of the highest selling medicine despite having the license to undergo its production?

to which many of the pharmaceutical companies replied 

it is impossible for us to sale the medicine at the cost lower than its production cost,G.S.K (pharmaceutical company responsible for the production of Panadol) was producing 450 M tablets per month after G.S.T imposed by the GOVT, duty on the import of the raw material and depreciation of rupee the cost of per tablet was 2.31 PK.R while the M.R.P of Panadol is 1.7/ Tab

so pharmaceutical companies demanded increased in the M.R.P to which D.R.A.P also got agreed but according to the law only GOVT can regulate the prices of the medicine and GOVT. refused to increase the price 

and yesterday it was declared by the company that they are going to cease the manufacturing of Panadol in the Pakistan

Black market and the drugs:

In such situation when highly demand medicines become short in the market the black market become active, store that particular medicine and then sale it at higher rates and makes huge profit out of it, along with this, mafias also come out and start manufacturing such products at their own small illegal units which causes spurious and substandard drugs to come in the market

however i would say timing of this shortage could not be worse when its demand is even higher than before especially in the flood hit areas it is unavailable, so try to shift toward alternatives such as Febrol and Disprol because most probably whoever is selling Panadol at this time is fraudulent, now govt. is also trying to aware the public about alternatives and break the brand loyalty....