Concerned by the severe shortage of human albumin in the state, the Gujarat FDCA had recently approached the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to take requisite steps to address this issue. It is reported that in the last few months there has been a shortage of this life saving product in the country which has been putting the lives of patients at high risk.

The country is reportedly going through a rough phase due to shortage of human albumin serum, a protein in blood plasma which is critical for treatment of patients suffering from liver disease, kidney failure,etc. Dr Hemant Koshia, commissioner of Gujarat FDCA informed that though there has been enough stock of human albumin serum in all the government hospitals. Over the past few days his office has been getting complaints on shortage of the same from the open market.

“As the drug controller of the state it is my duty to ensure that all the life saving medicines are made available to patients across all the section of the society at an affordable price. We already had taken note of  the current situation and have realized that immediate steps needs to be taken to address the shortage to prevent the situation from escalating,” he informed.

It is understood that following the Gujarat FDCA’s request the NPPA has already taken up the issue on their behalf with the concerned companies manufacturing human albumin across to country to supply the medicines to the state.

Interestingly, there are only handful of companies manufacturing albumin in the country namely, Reliance, Intas and Baxter, because of the huge investment and technological expertise needed for the same.

Industry insiders point out that the shortage has been an outcome of capping of prices of albumin by the NPPA under the new DPCO 2013, which has forced companies to either stop manufacturing or importing the same. While sources from the government inform that pharma companies are trying to arm-twist the whole situation by creating a shortage.

Dr S Eswara Reddy deputy drugs controller of India CDSCO, Ahmedabad informed that it is certainly an alarming situation which needs to be sorted out. He added that considering the seriousness of the issue the Centre has already referred the issue to the department of pharmaceuticals, since the issues relating to affordability and availability of the drugs falls under its ambit.