The study looked at 10 medicines including aspirin, amoxicillin and prednisone. File picture.
Photo: 123RF
New Zealand is at risk of running out of life-saving medicines – including antibiotics and heart drugs – if global catastrophe strikes, researchers warn.
A study published in The New Zealand Medical Journal has found that of the 10 most extensively prescribed pharmaceuticals, none could be manufactured locally.
Co-author Professor Nick Wilson from Otago University said in the event of a nuclear war in the Northern Hemisphere, or a pandemic or regional conflict that stopped trade, stocks of medicines would quickly disappear.
“This is a high level of vulnerability in a post-catastrophe situation.”
New Zealand’s biggest risk was due to the fact many key ingredients for these drugs required petrochemical refining, which the country no longer had.
“So that means that when existing stocks run out, we would no longer have any of these life-saving medicines, and we would see increased deaths from infections, heart disease, stroke and asthma.”
The study looked at:
- paracetamol
- omeprazole (for acute gastritis and treating gastric ulcers)
- amoxicillin, antibiotic to treat severe bacterial pneumonia
- ibuprofen (pain)
- aspirin, used to manage strokes and heart attacks
- metoprolol (blood pressure)
- salbutamol (asthma)
- prednisone, a steroid used for severe allergic reactions
- cetirizine (antihistamine)
- amlodipine (angina).
Wilson said not only was modern pharmaceutical manufacturing highly dependent on ingredients from petrochemical refining, but New Zealand also lacked many other necessary ingredients for these drugs.
Furthermore, the country did not have the complex industrial infrastructure to synthesise modern medicines at scale.
“New Zealand is not unique in this,” he said.
“Global manufacturing of medicines has become dependent on just a few countries, with Europe, for example, obtaining 60-80 percent of its ingredients for generic medicine manufacture from China.
“In the United States it’s even higher, with local manufacture of 15 percent of active ingredients for its brand medicines, and 12 percent for generic medicines.”
China and India make many generic medicines funded for use in New Zealand.
Boosting medicine resilience
One potential solution was to have agreements in place with Australia, which did have petrochemical manufacturing capability, and also was a major grower of poppies for the production of morphine and codeine.
Other options included modifying the wood pyrolysis plant in Timaru to produce phenols and furans, or the Glenbrook steel plant to produce benzene/phenol from coke gas to make ingredients for medicines.
A micro-refinery could also be built for oil extracted in Taranaki or from coal tar from West Coast coal mines.
“But all of these options would be expensive and challenging to undertake in a crisis situation,” Wilson said.
Another of the study authors, Dr Matt Boyd, said New Zealand could also consider producing natural alternatives to some medicines, for instance by using salicylic acid from the bark of willow trees as an alternative to aspirin, or by using hormones derived from livestock to produce insulin.
However, the more sensible approach would be for the New Zealand and Australian governments to come up with a joint plan to produce and trade key pharmaceuticals.
“Australia still has petrochemical refining, produces some of its own medicines, and is a major global producer of legal morphine from opium poppies.
“The New Zealand government could contribute funding towards medicines production in Australia, but it could also help ensure the viability of post-catastrophe trans-Tasman trade by using locally produced biofuel to keep cargo ships running.”
Wilson said New Zealand was “very good at planning for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions” but the biggest threats to medicine supply would come from overseas.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Source link