South Africa

A knock-on effect of the Chinese government's determination to make a success of the Olympic Games in Beijing has been the disruption of pharmaceutical ingredient supplies to the rest of the world, including South Africa, according to Business Day. Due to serious pollution concerns in China, with smog and contaminated rivers, a clamp down was imposed on all chemical factories in the Beijing region for the duration of the Games in August, including the Paralympics which followed.

The problem was widely reported in India, where one fifth of the active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported from China (Marketletters passim). Stephen Saad, chief executive of Aspen Pharmacare, South Africa's leading generic drugmaker, told Business Daily that the global inflation of food and oil prices had also hit the firm with some input factors climbing 200%. The rising cost of starch, in particular, affects tablet manufacturing, he said.

Because the South African government has introduced fixed prices for drugs, manufacturers are unable to pass on the higher costs to health care payers. Taken together, the API shortage and worsening margins have led to some products being withdrawn from the market as no longer viable, Mr Saad said. Among the ranges where supply deficiencies have been recorded are antibiotics, antidepressants, bronchodilators and diuretics.