The cessation of Aspirin and Glucobay imports to Taiwan by Bayer AG should not significantly affect Taiwan, as they are only used by two to four medical centers, while there are between 23 and 33 alternative generic drugs in the nation, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said yesterday.
Bayer’s decision was global and did not specifically target Taiwan, NHIA Medical Review and Drug Ingredients Division Director-General Huang Yu-wen (黃育文) said.
It was not a decision related to National Health Insurance (NHI) pricing or claims of drug shortages, Huang said.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Taiwan has seen about 47 drugs exit the market due to costs and logistics overheads, with Bayer earlier this month announcing that it would cease imports of foreign-manufactured Aspirin and Glucobay, and would implement stricter control on existing inventory.
The company said the decision to halt imports had nothing to do with the safety or quality of the drugs, and was a purely financial decision.
Huang said there is still inventory of 100mg enteric-coated Aspirin tablets and 50mg and 100mg Glucobay tablets nationwide, and the supply of the drugs was stable.
Aspirin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug that has been sold on the market since 1899 and is used primarily as a painkiller, to reduce inflammation and as an antithrombotic. Glubobay is used to control blood sugar as a treatment for diabetes.
Sources in the pharmaceutical sector said that Bayer drugs are priced at NT$2 per pill under the NHI program, and they are also subject to tax and logistics costs, making it hard to compete with local generic drugs.
Aspirin and Glucobay do not have high market share in Taiwan, with Aspirin at 3.5 percent last year, according to NHIA statistics.
Only four medical center-level hospitals in the nation prescribed Aspirin, while only two prescribed 50mg Glucobay tablets and four prescribed 100mg Glucobay tablets last year, Huang said.
The Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例), which passed this year, provided the NHIA with NT$20 billion (US$650.8 million) of funding to cover increased costs and manufacturing overheads, Huang said.
The NHIA would continue efforts to stabilize drug provision, ensure that clinical needs for drugs are met and uphold the public’s right to medicine, Huang added.
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