Coronavirus: Telangana to have medicine shortage in next 6 months

Hyderabad: There will be a severe shortage of medicines following the deadly outbreak of the Corona virus, according to the state department of medical health. Minister Eetela Rajender will meet representatives of all state pharma companies on 2 March to discuss the issue.

The drug regulatory agency has also sent orders to 50 organisations to attend the meeting. Almost all the pharma companies in the state import about 80 per cent of raw material from China. Due to the spread of the deadly virus, all the industries are shut down for now. If the situation remains the same, Hyderabad, which exports 30 per cent of medicines all over the world, will face a huge problem. The government has been on alert following this.

Apart from seven to eight companies, 140 pharma companies based in Telangana which supplies medicines to the Telangana state medical services and infrastructure development corporation (TSMSIDC) have not been supplying medicines depending on the needs. They are not even participating in the tenders. The government is dissatisfied that this is happening even after providing government subsidies. Taking the situations into consideration, the companies have been directed to supply medicines at low costs.

It has been decided that 600 types of medicines will be provided to the patients in the state government, out of which 200 types of medicines are deemed very important. The contract for these has been finalised. Meanwhile, the pharma companies have not shown a keen interest to supply 200 of the remaining 400 types of medicine. The reason behind this is the pressure to supply at a lower cost when compared to other states. In other states, the bills, including the advance, are cleared within 30 days, while here the bills are not cleared even after a year.