Business

Pharmacies struggle to keep Covid home tests in stock as omicron rages across US


Healthcare workers hand out free rapid Covid-19 home testing kits at a vaccine clinic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., on Monday, December 20, 2021.

Hannah Beier | Bloomberg | beautiful pictures

George Panagiotopoulos has struggled to keep at-home Covid-19 tests in stock at his neighborhood pharmacy Broadway Chemists in New York City as cases hit record highs across the state and in the US.

He said: A consignment of 200 tests went on sale the Saturday before Christmas “within hours”.

Panagiotopoulos, the pharmacy owner, had a list of 110 people waiting for him to add home tests on the Tuesday before Christmas. The shipment of 150 sets arrived two days late and sold out within 48 hours, he said. Broadway chemists received another shipment of 150 tests last Thursday, but most of them disappeared within a day.

As of Friday afternoon, the pharmacy only had 20 to 30 tests left in stock. Panagiotopoulos expects demand to remain high as schools reopen after the holiday season and parents rush to get their children tested.

His The experience is happening in Covid hotspots nationwide because of the infection hit an all-time high in the US, largely due to the highly contagious omicron variant.

‘Tsunami of demand’

Bidding war

Spokesman John Koval said Abbott, which received emergency FDA approval for the BinaxNOW at-home test in March, is responding to “unprecedented demand”.

“We ship them as fast as we can,” he said. “This includes running our U.S. manufacturing facilities 24/7, hiring more workers, and investing in automation,” he said.

Shaz Amin, founder of a company that sells at-home tests online, said the spike in demand has allowed distributors to raise prices as buyers like his company, WellBefore, have essentially been shut down. locked in a bidding war to secure a limited supply.

“Whatever we paid for test kits a week ago, we are paying 25% more today,” Amin said. “Someone in line behind us said, ‘I’ll give you another 25 cents to get the WellBefore allotted amount.”

Amin said the shortage meant that Covid test kits were sold before they even reached hands.

Prepayment

Lack of raw materials

Matt Regan, president and chief executive officer of medical goods distributor Code 1 Supply, said on Thursday that components of the test kits were depleted within the previous seven to 10 days. Regan said business partners have told him there is currently a shortage of raw materials for the test kits. They have also told him that distributors are prioritizing orders from federal agencies over other buyers, he said.

Three other companies selling Covid at-home tests who spoke to CNBC, including iPromo, Sunline Supply and the nonprofit Project N95, said they were similarly informed about the administration’s new plan. Biden makes 500 million home tests available to the public. shipments. But the White House said its plans should not get in the way of existing agreements between private parties.

A White House official said in a statement to CNBC: “Because we have this extra capacity, we’re able to make this purchase without disrupting the delivery of manufacturers’ commitments. current with states or organizations”.

Rapidly ramping up test production is difficult, said Steven Tang, CEO of rapid test manufacturer OraSure Technologies. Some testing components are lacking, he said, and adding staff to work overtime to do more testing is a challenge when demand fluctuates so much.

“Back in May and June, when we thought vaccines would solve everything, people started reducing supply and reducing labor and shifts,” said Tang. Demand for testing begins to pick up again in the fall, he said. “Businesses, especially those that are scaling, thrive when there is consistent demand and predictability. Right now, we’re not in a consistently predictable situation.” , he said.

Intensify production

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