Devnarayan Shah Industrialists say: ‘Cetamol cannot be produced at a price that does not rise to cost’. There is a shortage of cetamol, a fever medicine, in State 1 during the Corona epidemic. According to the Nepal Pharmaceutical Practitioners’ Association, State 1, there has been a shortage of cetamol in Biratnagar and other states for the past week.

Dhanraj Kafle, director of Apollo Pharmacy in Biratnagar, who is also the vice-chairman of the committee, said that there was a shortage as supply did not exceed the demand. At present, 10 to 15 consumers return from the pharmacy daily without getting cetamole, he said. The demand for cetamole has increased with the increase in corona infection rate. “The number of people coming to look for citamole has skyrocketed since two weeks ago,” he said. That is why it has not been found. ‘
Laxmi Timsina, president of the Nepal Pharmaceutical Practitioners’ Association Morang and operator of Om Virat Pharmacy, claimed that not a single packet of cetamol was left in most of the pharmacies. “Demand cannot be met but cetamol has not come for seven to ten days. How to give it to the consumers?” He asked.

He said that 50 to 100 cetamol packet were sold in one day after the prohibitory order was imposed. “There is a shortage in the market as one person has bought up to 10-15 packets,” he said. Timsina said that there is a shortage of medicines for chronic diseases including ‘Azithromycin’ and asthma medicine required for asthma patients.

The Biratnagar office of the Department of Drug Management has formed two groups to monitor the retail and wholesale drug stores in Sunsari, Morang, Jhapa and Ilam. Sanjeev Sharma Kattel, head of the department’s Biratnagar office, said that it was natural for the wholesalers to have a shortage of citamole during the monitoring. During the monitoring, extreme lack of citamole, doxycycline, azithromycin, vitamin C, steroids, zinc mill, methyl tedmisolan and digamithasone were also found, he said.

“We have already written to the department to make necessary arrangements for the supply of medicines including cetamol in the market,” he said. Narayan Kshatriya, president of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and operator of Time Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., has claimed that there is no shortage of cetamol in the market. He said that 800,000 tablets of cetamol were sent across the country including Biratnagar and Dharan on Sunday alone.

He said that there was a shortage in the market as the cost price would not rise at the rate fixed by the government. “Cetamol is not in short supply right now. After a month and a half, there will be a shortage, ‘he said.

Kshatriya says that it is not possible to produce and sell cetamol at the price 14 years ago when the price of raw material has quadrupled. “There is raw material in the industries that produce 60 million tablets for a month and a half, but if there is no price adjustment, we should not buy expensive raw material and sell it cheaply,” he said.