By Bae Ji-sook
Staff reporter
Heparin, used to prevent blood clotting in patients receiving dialysis treatment, is on the verge of being depleted by the end of the year, arousing concern among patients in need of the drug nearly every day.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare is considering raising the price of the drug here to encourage drug makers to get a firmer grip on production.
Choongwae Pharm Corp., which is responsible for 74 percent of domestic production of Heparin, recently told the Korean Society of Nephrology that it has managed to secure enough resources to manufacture 95,000 packs of the drug (one pack carries 10 to 12 doses). The stockpile is enough to meet domestic demand through the end of the year.
However, the future of the drug’s production is dimmer as the price of the extract from hog’s pancreas, the main ingredient of the drug, has skyrocketed in China, the only producer in the world.
The country was one of the latest victims of foot-and-mouth disease, which killed tens of thousands of hogs a day.
The pharmaceutical company said the price of the extract has jumped by as much as 10 times — from $7 a unit to $75.
“It seems that the U.S. and several other countries have become quite competitive regarding the issue,” a company spokesman said.
The company has reportedly considered shutting down the manufacturing line once the secured extracts are depleted due to the skyrocketing costs.
The health authorities say that they are considering raising Heparin prices to spur the pharmaceutical companies to continue producing the drug.
In Korea, 36,000 patients of chronic renal failure receive dialysis every other day, consuming 6 million doses a year. The drug is also used in high-risk surgeries involving blood transfusions.