Sigma plea: don’t hoard medicines

The ­nation’s biggest pharmacy wholesaler, Sigma Healthcare, says ­demand for basic medicines has risen sharply.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals CEO Mark Hooper at their HQ in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

While retailers are seeing panic buying of household staples amid the coronavirus scare, the ­nation’s biggest pharmacy wholesaler, Sigma Healthcare, says ­demand for basic medicines has also increased sharply.

To avoid a situation like the national toilet paper shortage — which has been driven by panic buying — Sigma chief executive Mark Hooper said he had been working with government and commonwealth agencies to ensure the continued supply of critical medical supplies to pharmacies across Australia.

Sigma owns the Amcal, Guardian, Chemist King, Discount Drug Stores and PharmaSave pharmacy brands.

It also supplies several other pharmacy chains, including Chemist Warehouse.

“We have seen strong demand for certain lines of medicines and we are working hard with government and agencies to maintain supply to pharmacies,” Mr Hooper told The Australian.

Governments around the world are scrambling to contain or manage the outbreak of COVID-19 in their respective countries as the number of cases worldwide surges past 100,000 and the number of deaths past 3400.

Mr Hooper said so far medicinal supply lines from China — which is one of the world’s biggest producers of raw pharmaceutical ingredients — remained uninterrupted despite a manufacturing shutdown across the world’s second-biggest economy.

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“In terms of supply of medicines from China, so far we have not seen any impact, but we are closely monitoring the situation with suppliers,” he said.

Australia’s deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly on the weekend said the government was looking to locally source drugs as well as essential medical equipment such as protective face masks to combat possible supply chain disruptions in China.

“We’re looking actively as to whether we need to be thinking about stockpiling some of these drugs in our national medical stockpile,” Professor Kelly told reporters in Canberra.

He also urged the public not to repeat the panic buying of toilet paper seen last week with a rush on medicines, insisting vital pharmacy medications were in plentiful supply in Australia.

“As we have seen, you can ­actually create a shortage very quickly by people hoarding and, please, do not do this with any goods — but particularly with pharmaceutical products.”

Although there is no specific antiviral drug being used to treat COVID-19 as yet, Professor Kelly said antivirals and antibiotics were the most important drugs the government needed in its own stockpile.

The federal government is expected to finalise its multi-billion-dollar economic stimulus response package this week.

The government has also ­secured 54 million additional face masks for the nation’s medical stockpile, ensuring frontline health workers will have sufficient access to the protective gear.

Woolworths and Coles have tried to put the brakes on panic buying by cutting the maximum number of toilet paper packages customers can purchase, with Coles cutting it from four to one, and Woolworths ­allowing shoppers to buy two, also down from four.

Last month Sigma said it ­remained on target to deliver a full-year earnings result of between $46-$47m. Sigma is scheduled to release its full-year 2020 results on March 25.

Additional reporting: Emily Ritchie