A spike in flu cases is fueling a shortage of antivirals at Chinese pharmacies, with empty shelves reminiscent of the drug frenzy triggered by the explosive COVID-19 outbreak that accompanied the country’s reopening.
Supplies of the medicine, known by its generic name oseltamivir and sometimes sold as Tamiflu, have appeared to run low at brick-and-mortar and online pharmacies across parts of China in recent days, with some stores selling out their floor stocks and only offering deliveries that would take days to arrive, local media reported over the weekend.
Flu appears to have crept back into the more than 1.4 billion population even as China’s latest, biggest COVID-19 outbreak waned.
Photo: EPA
The rate of positive flu cases jumped by more than 10 percentage points — to 14.3 percent — in the week ending Feb. 19.
The rate overtook COVID-19 for the first time since early December last year, according to data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, when China’s pivot from “zero COVID-19” restrictions caused infections to proliferate.
Shares of flu-related firms climbed. YiChang HEC ChangJiang Pharmaceutical Co, which makes oseltamivir, jumped as much as 12 percent before paring its gain to 2 percent. BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology Co climbed as much as 8.9 percent, while Hunan Nucien Pharmaceutical Co Ltd surged as much as 16 percent.
The flu surge has since last week also triggered class suspension at schools across a number of cities. China’s health and educational authorities have allowed schools to put in-class teaching on hold for a few days following the detection of clusters of infections ranging from flu and COVID-19 to norovirus and chickenpox.
The quick depletion of flu medicine at pharmacies is reminiscent of the shortage of drugs ranging from antipyretics to COVID-19 antivirals — including Pfizer Inc’s Paxlovid — as cases spiked across China in early December last year.
A temporary tight supply or shortage of flu antivirals has been seen before in China. Some pharmacies have stocked fewer flu antivirals due to expectations of low incidence of flu amid lockdowns and social distancing since 2020, as COVID-19 swept the world.
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