STRATEGY
VIRUS OUTBREAK
IMPACT ON PHARMA INDUSTRY Though the viral outbreak is not common but it happens time to time ie. Ebola, Swine Flu, SARS and most recent COVID-19 outbreak. Because of the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 and global lockdown, the demand and supply of pharma industry has significantly affected due to the shortage of manpower and resources in pharma industry. This kind of viral outbreak negatively regulate the pharma industry which affect the world economy. Dhruv Kumar, Associate Professor, Amity Institute of Molecular Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, India
V
iral outbreaks are not new to the world. Before COVID-19, we had other outbreaks such as Ebola in 2014-2016, Swine Flu (H1N1) in 2009, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2009-2010. But the COVID-19 outbreak became a pandemic, and broke the record of all viral outbreak in past 100 years, forcing the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare health emergency globally. Most of the affected countries have declared global lockdown as a consequence of the high rate of transmission of the Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID19). In recent weeks, 30 per cent to 40 per cent new cases have been reported in European countries and in USA alone. Whereas, some countries like
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P H A RM A F O C U S A S I A
ISSUE 39 - 2020
China, Singapore, Israel, and South Korea are effectively managing and the incidence of new cases have sharply declined. Some countries like India, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey are experiencing controlled rise in new cases in last few weeks. Other parts of the world are also experiencing the exponential rise in new cases. Initially the coronavirus affected the Asian markets largely, but now it has become the global issue. The aggressive virus control strategies of China and low case load in India has somehow stabilised the coronavirus infection as compared to the rest of the world, mainly USA and European countries. This global lockdown has significantly affected key industries such as oil, industry, and pharma. This is not a completely new experi-
ence for the pharma industry. In last few weeks, the public-private partnership has promoted pharma industries around the globe to work in association with Government agencies to solve the COVID-19 issues. This public-private partnership to fight against COVID19 is supporting the development of new therapeutic approaches, vaccines development, medical equipment development, and personal protective equipment (PPE) development. As reported by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, several pharma companies are working on the development of vaccines, therapeutic development, and repurposing of drugs which are already FDA approved for other diseases like Ebola and HIV against SARS-CoV-2.
