Some pharmaceutical products imported from India may soon be out of stock in Myanmar say some local importers and sellers

Some pharmaceutical products imported from India may soon be out of stock in Myanmar say some local importers and sellers.

According to the industry insiders, some 75 percent of the medicines sold in the Myanmar market are imported from India and currently Indian pharmaceutical firms are facing shortages of raw materials for their manufacturing.

“Some medicines may be out of supply, but we can’t say definitely whether prices will go up or not as they vary with respective firms. If some Indian companies don’t export those medicines, prices will surely go up. The coronavirus outbreak in China has disrupted the supply chain of critical ingredients and the chemicals used to make pharmaceutical products so Indian manufacturers may have to stop their production,” said U Lwin Han, managing director of Yammawaddy International Co Ltd.

The government of India has also restricted the export of certain types of medical products to other countries due to high demand at home, said U Lwin Han.

However, the strengthening of the kyat against the US dollar is also somewhat counteracting the shortages and keeping prices of medicines steady, said Ko Hla Phyo, a supervisor with a pharmaceuticals importer

“Our country largely imports medical products from India. There often tends to be issues of raw materials between India and China. Medical products are still coming in the country at present. The drug prices are rather likely to go down with the falling dollar exchange rate, but for the medical products which were imported when the exchange rate was high, they can’t be expected to fall anytime soon,” said Ko Hla Phyo.