GSK’s Pakistan unit is scaling back production of the painkiller Panadol amid a growing health emergency triggered by recent flooding in the country.
In a filing (PDF) with the Pakistan Stock Exchange, the company invoked a force majeure related to the soaring costs of raw materials used to manufacture Panadol tablets, Panadol Extra tablets and children’s Panadol.
Despite a consumer price inflation adjustment in prices approved for 2022, the increase “is not commensurate with the debilitating increase in the prices of the raw material of Paracetamol," the company added.
Although GSK has slowed production of the painkiller, the company pointed out that other drugmakers have shuttered overall manufacture of drugs in the pain relief category. In the pat year, the company said it produced about 5.4 million tablets of Panadol 500 mg and Panadol Extra in Pakistan.
“We are one of the few multinational companies left operating in the country,” GSK said in the filing. “Manufacturing of the Panadol range on negative margins is unsustainable, and despite exhaustive efforts of the company to mitigate this matter through dialogue, the situation is now beyond our control.”
The move by GSK comes in the wake of massive flooding earlier this year that swamped about a third of the country, affecting an estimated 33 million people. Since then, Pakistan has been dealing with a surge in dengue, malaria and other waterborne diseases.