Resilience in supply chain will ease drug woes soon

Due to the rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 infections, the demand for some medicines has grown, leading to panic buying and stockpiling, which is piling pressure on the country's medicine supplies.

China's production capacity of COVID-19 drugs can meet the needs of patients and enterprises have been urged to quickly stabilize and expand production, and increase the supply of key drugs.

If demand for certain drugs increases rapidly, there are bound to be gaps in supply, but the market will reach a balanced state through constant feedback and actions. There should be no panic buying or hoarding because of the temporary shortage of certain drugs.

Relevant departments are stepping up coordination in the production and distribution of related drugs. For example, Beijing has already distributed 3.5 million boxes of anti-pandemic drugs to thousands of hospitals and pharmacies. China's market economy system and supply chain capabilities have enough confidence to deal with this temporary drug supply shortage.

As far as pharmaceutical manufacturing is concerned, China's capacity is no less impressive.

Data show that in 2021, the added value of China's pharmaceutical sector accounted for 4.1 percent of its total industry, with an operating revenue of 3.4 trillion yuan ($488 billion), up 80.8 percent over 2012. China manufactures a variety of antiviral, anti-allergy, antipyretic and analgesic drugs, and once their production and supply are mobilized at full capacity, there would be a considerable potential and scale.

In the drug industry, China is known as the "factory of the world". Especially with three years of anti-pandemic experience, China's supply chain system has withstood waves of shocks and become more stable and tenacious.

The supply chain system with pharmaceutical e-commerce as the main form is becoming an important force of market supplies. As the country loosens restrictions on online diagnosis and treatment services, patients can present COVID-19 prescriptions online, making it easier for them to buy drugs later.