The medicine market in Kerala is encountering a burning issue in the wake of acute shortage of life saving drug, human albumin serum, required by patients with liver disease. The shortage is being experienced not only in Kerala but many other parts of the country as well.
Dr R M Jayachandran, a civil surgeon in Pathanamthitta district says that the availability of this drug has to be ensured always as protein is essential for the patients suffering from liver and kidney diseases. The albumin injection is taken to compensate the shortage of protein in human plasma of the blood.
The wholesale pharma distributors in the state are aggressively trying to collect the drug from north Indian agencies to cater to the needs of the pharmacies across the state, but their attempts end in vain.
According to Antony Tharian, a wholesale distributor from Kochi, the reason for the paucity of the drug is evident from the fact that it has been included in the list of new DPCO. So the pharma companies are behind the shortage. Since the drug is under the DPCO list, it has to be sold on a government fixed rate. The price of the drug has been reduced considerably by the NPPA.
Albumin serum is one of the imported drugs and is being sold in the Karunya Pharmacies of the Kerala Medical Services Corporation on a cheaper rate. Presently, albumin is not available in any of the Karunya Pharmacy in Kerala, sources informed.
Tharian said another life saving drug, Humane Immune Globulin and Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), and anti-rabbis serum are also not available in any pharmacies in Kerala because of the discontinuation of supply by the manufacturing companies.
Although large quantum of these drugs is imported, there are a few domestic companies manufacture the drug. Since the new DPCO has reduced the price, the pharma companies are deliberately creating a shortage in order to force an increase its price in the near future, traders from Kerala alleged.