Latest / Drive with John Perlman / Anti-depressant shortage sparks festive season fears

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Anti-depressant shortage sparks festive season fears · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're with John Pullman on 702. Let's walk the talk.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Let's focus our attention now on this story. There are
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: some issues, a number of drugs out of stock in
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the government, the public health system. But there are also
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: concerns in particular that... antidepressants are one of those items
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: that are out of stock. So let's get an idea, firstly,
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: what the larger problem is, and then the specifics around
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: the antidepressants. And welcome to the show, Khadija Jamaluddin, who
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: is Chief Director for Health Product Procurement at the Department
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: of Health. Very good afternoon to you, and thanks so
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: much for giving us your time. We'll talk more broadly
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: about procurement challenges in a moment, but is there a
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: specific problem with antidepressants and if so what is the
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: scale and cause of the problem good afternoon to.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: You good afternoon john and thank you for having me
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: um it's never a specific problem so the medicine supply
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: chain and the way it works is always contributing factors
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  Speaker 1: and sometimes there are overlapping factors that contributes to a
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  Speaker 1: stockout so it's never just one thing yes um But
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  Speaker 1: in this instance, I mean, we've had a very stable
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: medicine supply chain for many years, ever since COVID. But
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  Speaker 1: in recent days, we've seen an uptick in the challenges
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that we are facing. And a lot of it is
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: driven by the geopolitical supply chain disruptions. You know, the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Strait of Hormuz, the closure of the Strait, which has
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: then delayed shipments of critical pharmaceutical, active pharmaceutical ingredients that
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: are needed to make the medicine. So that's the one thing.
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  Speaker 1: What it has also contributed to is global shipping delays.
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  Speaker 1: And that is exacerbated by the pressure that we are
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: currently experiencing at Durban Port. So you have port and
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: shipping delays. You have the active pharmaceutical ingredients that can't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: come through. But also added to that is the fact
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: that a lot of our medicines are made locally. And
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: what has happened in recent times, and we had a
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  Speaker 1: meeting with SAPRA this morning, our regulator, There's been an
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  Speaker 1: uptick also in the number of enforcements which SAPRA has
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: issued against our local manufacturers because they couldn't maintain the
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: regulatory standards. Obviously, this poses a risk to our patients
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  Speaker 1: if the quality assurance is not there. So they've had
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: to shut down a number of production lines, and that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: has impacted on our availability of medicines.
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  Speaker 2: So speak a little bit more, if you will, about
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  Speaker 2: the last point you made. When you talk about regulatory,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I don't know if the right word is breach, but
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: failure to comply, is that quality of manufacturing standards? And
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  Speaker 2: when you say lines, are you referring to production lines
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: or particular products?
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  Speaker 1: Yes. Okay. So it is a failure of maintaining the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: quality standards.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: And when we talk about lines, it is production lines
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  Speaker 1: because oftentimes manufacturers will have different lines. So maybe make
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: corticosteroids on one line. And because they're using, because corticosteroids
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: are metabolically active, they can't make any other product on
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: that line. Same goes for oral contraceptives.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: So they can close off the corticosteroid line, but keep
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the other production lines open. So the facility isn't closed,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: but the line's, could be closed. So this could result
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: in restricting manufacturing practices. There could be product recalls, which
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: we haven't seen. Yes. The production lines have been closed,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: which has impacted on the availability of medicines.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: So, Ms. Jamaluddin, from everything you're saying, these are all
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: major systemic problems. Obviously, we can't fix the Strait of Hormuz.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: We certainly can't deal with the shipping problems or the
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: availability of key components of medicines. There's stuff that needs
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: fixing in our manufacturing sector, which is not going to
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: happen quickly. Do we have to brace ourselves for not
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: just a shortage of antidepressants, but in the public sector,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: a shortage of quite a few key medications that people
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  Speaker 2: rely on? I mean, is this a problem that's got, what,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: a three, six-month timeline before we see stability?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's not just antidepressants. It's a whole range
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  Speaker 1: of medicines. Yes. And I just want to clarify that
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  Speaker 1: the issues are also being experienced in the private sector.
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  Speaker 1: The difference is, you know, public sector, we cater for
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  Speaker 1: a larger volume of people. We do cater for the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: more vulnerable population. And, you know, the way we do things,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: we can't course correct as rapidly as the private sector.
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  Speaker 1: But certainly when there's a production line shutdown, as in
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Rapsa or, you know, one of the companies, I'll take
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: phenobarbitone or folic acid When that production line was shut down,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the stock out equally affected the private sector and the
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: public sector. So they are experiencing shortages, but not on
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  Speaker 1: the scale that we do, because obviously we are a
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: larger buyer and our processes are more cumbersome. Thank you.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Lots of clarity offered there. And
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  Speaker 2: I've certainly got a clearer picture of what's going on.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Khadija Jamaluddin is Chief Director for Health Product Procurement at
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the Department of Health. 22 minutes past four.