What is the supply of influenza drugs？ Some pharmaceutical companies said that the demand increased significantly and mobilized global resources to urgently stock up.

Recently, influenza has once again entered the public’s field of vision, and the supply of related antiviral drugs has also attracted much attention.

On January 11th, The Paper reporter learned from Roche China that recently, the market demand of the company’s innovative influenza antiviral drug Sufuda (generic name: mabaloxavir) has increased significantly in both hospitals and prescription drug retail. In order to ensure the patients’ medication demand during the flu season, Roche has quickly launched a plan, mobilized the resources of the global supply chain, and urgently stocked the fast-fuda, so as to ensure the patients with influenza in China to take medication.

The above-mentioned mabaloxavir is an innovative anti-influenza drug under Roche, the first anti-influenza drug with innovative mechanism approved in the past 20 years, and another innovative drug in the anti-influenza field after Tamiflu (oseltamivir) by Roche, so some people call it "super Tamiflu" and "super influenza drug".

Earlier, some media reported that the sales of Mabaloxavir were hot, and some pharmacies were 100 yuan more expensive than hospitals. At that time, Roche publicly responded that the price increase of individual drug channels in the market was a market behavior, not Roche’s behavior. In the latest response, Roche China introduced that at present, the drug has entered more than 1,600 hospitals nationwide through formal access or temporary procurement. At the same time, the company also actively explores cooperation with Internet medical platforms to facilitate the home dispensing of influenza patients. For example, platforms such as Meituan Buyao, JD Health, Dingdang Kuaiyao and Ali Health Pharmacy all have Sufuda supply.

Influenza is a respiratory infectious disease caused by influenza virus. Besides mabaloxavir, common anti-influenza drugs include neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir. Recently, the sales of oseltamivir have also increased significantly.

Previously, the data that The Paper reporter learned from YiYao.com showed that from the week-on-week comparison, on the B2B platform of YiYao.com, from January 1 to January 7, 2024, compared with December 25 to December 31, the sales of cold drugs increased by 30%, antipyretic and analgesic drugs by 27.6%, cough relieving, phlegm relieving and asthma by 34.8%, and antibacterial and anti-inflammatory drugs by 34%. Among them, oseltamivir phosphate capsules increased by 38% in December compared with November.

In addition, the sales of oseltamivir, the representative drug of anti-influenza virus, increased significantly on the B2C medical platform of No.1 Drug Network. The overall sales in November increased nearly five times compared with that in October, and the average daily sales in November reached six times that in October.

Domestic enterprises producing oseltamivir include Dongyang Guangyao (1558.HK) and Borui Pharmaceutical (688166). Borui Medicine responded to investors on December 8, 2023, saying that the company’s oseltamivir phosphate dry suspension won the bid in the eighth batch of national centralized drug procurement, with the winning bid price of 15.99 yuan/box, and the agreed procurement base for the first year was 431,324 bottles. As an antiviral drug, oseltamivir needs rapid response ability to meet the market demand in time. The company will make full use of the advantages of integration of raw materials and preparations, pay close attention to production, respond to market demand quickly, and fully guarantee market supply.