How does leukaemia help drug stop production to return a responsibility? Since the beginning of this year, thiopurine tablets, a life-saving drug for leukemia, have been hard to buy, even in some large hospitals. The shortage of thiopurine tablets has also led to the rise of drug prices, and even if a high price is offered, it is difficult to buy the desired thiopurine tablets.
Patients turn to the Internet to find drugs. Doctors say that many channels of online and foreign drug purchase are not standardized, and they are in a "gray area". For example, mercaptopurine tablets are afraid of light and tide. During the mailing process, it is likely to affect the quality of drugs and lead to the effect of drug efficacy.
Only about ten domestic enterprises producing thiopurine tablets said that the production line of thiopurine tablets is basically in a state of shutdown at present, because of the rise of raw materials and low profits. Some enterprises also said that according to the requirements of higher health departments, thiopurine tablets may soon resume production.
Patients' families are looking for medicine everywhere
Jiajia (pseudonym) is a 7-year-old child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Jinan. After early treatment, it has entered a stable period and needs continuous medication, among which mercaptopurine tablet is a very important one. But from the beginning of this year, Jiajia's mother found that this kind of "life-saving medicine" was hard to buy. Even some big hospitals couldn't open it, but she had to turn to the Internet to buy medicine or ask friends to buy it in other cities. However, nearly ten domestic enterprises producing thiopurine tablets told Beijing Youth Daily that their production line of thiopurine tablets was basically stopped at present Production status is due to rising raw materials and low profits. However, some of them also said that according to the requirements of the superior health department, the mercaptopurine tablets in short supply in the market may soon resume production.
Buy 'life-saving medicine' information
All over the Internet
"Where can I sell thiopurine tablets produced in Shaanxi?" where can I sell thiopurine tablets in Wuhan? "Where can I sell thiopurine tablets in Nanjing?" the reporter of Beiqing daily saw in QQ group and Baidu Post Bar of some parents of children with leukemia on the 15th, and the information about purchasing thiopurine tablets is everywhere.
'we really can't buy it here. The hospital and drugstore don't have any. Last year, the hospital opened a bottle for us. There were 100 tablets in total. Fortunately, the dosage was not large. Only one quarter or one-half of the tablets were taken each time, so the child has been insisting on taking them until now, but now the medicine has been bottomed out, but the doctor said that they will continue to take them. The hospital can't prescribe them because there is no medicine I'm in a hurry. "Said a parent of a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Nanchang. However, he can only find drugs through the Internet. 'there are some on the Internet, many of them are sold at a higher price, but he will still worry about the source of drugs. '
Mr. Wang, a family member of a child in Beijing, told the Beijing Youth Daily that his daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in October this year. Now she relies on the donation of a kind-hearted person for chemotherapy. Because her family is difficult, mercaptopurine is the necessary medicine for treatment. To take the medicine for a long time, Mr. Wang can only choose domestic mercaptopurine tablets. 'my daughter has just made a waist dress. Now she doesn't even have the medicine in the hospital. She has been looking for a medicine for more than half a month. Now all the drugstores in Beijing, big and small, have been transferred and haven't bought it. Now I have borrowed ten from the families of other children, and I can only go around for a few days to see if I can buy them. 'Mr. Wang said.
However, the shortage of thiopurine tablets has also led to the rise of drug prices, and even more worrying for patients and their families is that it is difficult to buy the thiopurine tablets they want even if they pay a high price. Several parents of the children told Beiqing news that, taking Yongkang brand thiopurine tablet produced by Shaanxi Xingbang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. as an example, the price of the tablet was about 40 yuan a bottle two years ago, but this year, even if the price of the same drug was 200 yuan online, it was difficult to buy it.
High price online drug purchase for patients
Doctors say there is a risk
The reporter of Beiqing daily learned that mercaptopurine tablet is suitable for the treatment of chorioepithelial carcinoma, malignant hydatidiform mole, acute lymphocytic leukemia, acute non lymphocytic leukemia and chronic myeloid leukemia, especially for children with leukemia. If the drug is cut off or replaced, the treatment effect will be greatly affected.
'since 2016, our hospital's mercaptopurine tablet reserve has been relatively tight, so at that time, we stopped the supply of this drug in the outpatient department and gave priority to the inpatients. But by the beginning of this year, the inpatients' drugs were also difficult to supply. Dai Yunpeng, director of pediatric blood and endocrine Department of Shandong Provincial Hospital, said: 'the hospital has communicated with the production enterprises for many times, but the enterprises said that the dosage of the drug was small and the profit was low, so they basically stopped production. As a hospital, we have no choice but to suggest that patients purchase drugs through other channels. '
A doctor in the Department of Hematology of the "top three" hospital, who didn't want to be named, told Beiqing news that if the needed drugs were out of stock, they generally suggested using the regular alternative drugs. If there was no way, they would recommend patients to buy drugs online or through some channels to buy drugs for export. "In fact, many channels of online and foreign drug purchase are not standardized, which is in one kind of" lsquo "; In the gray area, there is no way. Take mercaptopurine tablet for example. This kind of drug is afraid of light and tide. In the process of mailing, it is likely to affect the quality of the drug and its efficacy. '
A staff member of an online drug purchase platform told Beiqing news that only the domestic thiopurine tablets produced by Shaanxi Xingbang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Zhabei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. were available in the market in recent days, but now these two kinds of drugs are few in stock and hard to buy. 'the domestic thiopurine tablets are out of stock now. There are many fakes on the market. Life-saving drugs dare not be made randomly. The domestic thiopurine tablets were only sold for 50 yuan a box before. There is no profit, so they are stopped. Now they can be bought several times. Now the price of imported thiopurine tablets is 1150 yuan a box, 25 capsules. The price of imports is a little higher because the company charges a service fee. "Because the price of domestic thiopurine tablets is lower than that of imported ones, some families of children with family difficulties are looking for 'life-saving drugs' everywhere. Once found, a large number of' hoards' will be made.".
High cost and low profit lead to shutdown
The enterprise indicates or will re produce
The reporter of Beiqing daily learned that there are nearly ten enterprises that can produce thiopurine tablets in China at present. The reporter of Beiqing daily contacted these pharmaceutical enterprises respectively on November 15. These enterprises generally said that the production lines of thiopurine tablets had been stopped at present, some of which had been stopped for more than two years.
A staff member of Zhejiang Zhebei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. told Beiqing news: 'our pharmaceutical factory started to produce thiopurine tablets around 2014, but the production of thiopurine tablets was reduced for some time due to the upgrading of product equipment, which led to the reduction of production of thiopurine tablets. At present, the relevant departments have asked us to resume production. It is expected that production can be resumed after the certificate is approved. 'the staff said,' as an enterprise, we need to survive according to the market rules, but we do face the problem of high cost and low profit of & lsquo; life-saving drugs. If we rely solely on administrative requirements, we may still have to stop production for a long time. '
According to the staff of the pharmaceutical industry in Northern Zhejiang, it has been confirmed in Shaanxi Xingbang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which also produces mercaptopurine tablets. According to the company's staff, they stopped production six months ago. At present, enterprises also resume production after the approval of the certificate, but the specific time is not clear.
Beiqing news reporter learned that some provinces had taken various measures to ensure the supply of thiopurine tablets. On July 12, Shandong health and Family Planning Commission issued an early warning of drug shortage detection. Among the 17 drugs in urgent supply, there are mercaptopurine tablets. There is no local inventory of mercaptopurine tablets. On July 18, Shandong health and Family Planning Commission issued a notice again, claiming that mercaptopurine tablets can be supplied normally by coordinating the emergency allocation of drug manufacturers and drug distributors.
Although depending on some provinces to actively coordinate the production of enterprises, the shortage of thiopurine tablets in a short period of time still can not guarantee the medication problems of all children.