Thai Government pharmaceutical organisation boosts production of key medicines

Dr Mukdavan Prakobvaitayakit, the deputy managing director of The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation says “the GPO has been increasing the amount of production for chronic disease medication by 50%. ”

This unexpected Covid-19 pandemic has hit the stockpile of 5 – 6 key medicines, which are being used in the treatment of Covid-19. In normal circumstances, GPO usually purchases raw materials and equipment to stock up for at least 6 months in advance or to slowly build up stocks for at least 2 – 3 months.

Hospitals have been dispensing six-month quotas for chronic patients to cut down on congestion and reduce the risk of the spread of the virus.

Since the start of the pandemic, which first hit Thailand towards the end of January, the GPO has continually adjusted its production plan to focus on essential medicines for chronic diseases. This is done by bringing forward the delivery of raw materials, the time of production by using high-speed automatic pill-filling machines from Germany, and finding alternate sources in the supply chain.

So far, the GPO has found sources in India for ‘Simvastatin’ (lipid-lowering medication) and has been able to increase its production capacity from 56 million tablets to 62 million tablets per month.

The GPO also has found sources in India for chemicals used in the production of ‘Amlodipine’ (to treat high-blood pressure and coronary diseases) which will enable the GPO to boost monthly production capacity from 50 million pills to 75 million.

With raw materials now sourced in India and China the GPO has also been able to boost its capacity for the production of…

• Diabetes drug ‘Metformin’
• High blood pressure drug ‘Losartan’
• All 22 anti-retroviral drugs used mainly in HIV patients

Overall, the GPO is expected to increase its production capacity for essential drugs by about 30% this month and up to 50% from May onwards.

SOURCE: The Nation

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