By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The pharmaceutical manufacturing company Pharma-Q insists that the crisis of a shortage of Adrenaline from its failure to manufacture and supply it to Gauteng’s hospitals lasted only 24 hours.
The problem has been fully resolved.
This is despite a confirmed province-wide shortage of Adrenaline in Gauteng’s key public facilities for months, and staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath raising concerns of a looming disaster as far back as 8 May.
The company was responding to a statement by the Health Department in Gauteng, which said there was a shortage of live-saving Adrenalin at several facilities across the province, including Baragwanath.
The department’s spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said the shortage of Adrenalin began in May as the supplier was struggling to cope with demand.
“A majority of our facilities have a one-month stockholding instead of the usual two months. PharmaQ is only supplying limited quantities. The reason cited by the company is load shedding, which has now been addressed as they say they have made provision for alternative power supply,” said Modiba.
But the company said they managed to continue allocating stock equitably across its range of drugs to all customers, despite the power cuts.
“The hospital’s shortage of stock of adrenaline was due to Pharma-Q experiencing massive planned and unplanned power cuts of up to 10 hours per day in the industrial zone from which it operates from March 2023 onwards. This affected its ability to manufacture a sterile batch in continuity for 6.5 hours straight.
“This resulted in possible quality compromises on stock which was destroyed as its integrity and safety could not be guaranteed. While Pharma-Q’s overall manufacturing ability was affected, it continued to allocate stock equitably across its range of drugs to all customers.”
Pharma-Q imported added that since 10 June, when its “load shedding curtailment” agreement with the City of Johannesburg came into effect, it has been able to “manufacture product consistently without any power interruptions”.