PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is strengthening its buffer stocks for critical medicines and medical devices.
This is part of its efforts to ensure the security of the supplies following the global energy crisis, it said yesterday.
“The ministry is also diversifying supply sources and continuously monitoring raw materials and the supply chain with the industry to enable the risk of disruption to be identified earlier and addressed in a targeted manner,” it said in a statement.
Among the measures implemented are the Special Access Pathway, emergency response plans, the fixing of controlled items, as well as the expanded use of e-labelling for medical devices.
The Special Access Pathway is an initiative to ensure continued access to critical and life-saving medicines.
“The current global energy crisis has affected the global supply chain, including medicines and medical devices.
“This has impacted the delivery and unstable access to several critical medical devices, especially imported products for high-risk categories,” the statement said.
According to the ministry, this situation has also, among other things, affected the ability of suppliers to meet contractual obligations, in addition to potentially affecting the continuity of health service delivery if not addressed immediately.
The ministry elaborated that supply management is carried out prudently through distribution based on clinical needs and rational use.
This is in addition to the preparation of alternative clinical treatment plans and facilitating regulatory processes to ensure continued access to medicines.
In the medium and long term, the ministry said it would strengthen supply resilience through the transition from resin to polymer materials, the implementation of Unique Device Identification (UDI) and the development of a local industry for medical devices.
For medicines, the ministry said the drug supply security policy is being developed through the MyMedSecure initiative, strengthening local production, digitalisation of the supply chain and the establishment of a national strategic buffer stock.
