Flu cases surge in China, leaving antivirals in short supply

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A spike in flu cases is fuelling a shortage of antiviral medication at Chinese pharmacies, with empty shelves reminiscent of the drug frenzy triggered by the explosive Covid-19 outbreak that accompanied the country’s reopening.

Supplies of the medicine, known by its generic name oseltamivir and sometimes sold under the brand Tamiflu, appear to have run low at both bricks-and-mortar and online pharmacies across parts of China in recent days, with some stores selling out their floor stocks and only offering deliveries that will take days to arrive, local media reported at the weekend.

Flu appears to have crept back among the more than 1.4 billion population even as China’s latest and biggest Covid-19 outbreak wanes. The rate of positive flu cases jumped by more than 10 percentage points – to 14.3 per cent – in the week ending Feb 19.

The rate overtook that of Covid-19 for the first time since early December 2022, according to data released by the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, when China’s pivot from zero-Covid restrictions caused infections to proliferate.

Shares of flu-related companies climbed. YiChang HEC ChangJiang Pharmaceutical, which makes oseltamivir, jumped as much as 12 per cent before paring its gains to 2 per cent. BrightGene Bio-Medical Technology climbed as much as 8.9 per cent, while Hunan Nucien Pharmaceutical surged as much as 16 per cent.

The flu surge has since last week also triggered class suspensions at schools in a number of cities.

China’s health and educational authorities have allowed schools to put in-class teaching on hold for a few days following the detection of clusters of infections ranging from flu and Covid-19 to the norovirus and chickenpox.

The quick depletion of flu medicine at pharmacies is reminiscent of the shortage of drugs ranging from antipyretics to Covid-19 antivirals – including Pfizer’s Paxlovid – as cases spiked across China in early December 2022, though the current surge in flu cases is far less dramatic.

A temporary tight supply or shortage of flu antivirals has been seen before in China.

Some pharmacies have stocked fewer flu antivirals amid expectations of low incidence of influenza during lockdowns and social distancing since 2020, as Covid-19 swept the world. (BLOOMBERG)