Japan Reports USD1.6B Worth of COVID-19 Pills Discarded
(MENAFN) Japan's Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that roughly 240 billion yen (equivalent to $1.6 billion) worth of expired COVID-19 oral treatments were discarded in the fiscal year ending March, media reported.
The medications, which could have treated an estimated 2.5 million individuals, were procured during the peak of the pandemic and distributed at no cost to medical facilities nationwide.
A major shift occurred in May 2023 when the government reclassified COVID-19, placing it in the same category as seasonal flu. This policy change transferred financial responsibility for treatment to patients, leading to a steep drop in usage.
Health officials confirmed that the discarded inventory included 1.75 million doses of Pfizer’s antiviral nirmatrelvir and 780,000 doses of Merck’s molnupiravir.
The government had also secured 2 million doses of ensitrelvir, developed by Shionogi & Co. However, approximately 1.77 million of those remain unused. According to the report, they are likely to be scrapped once they expire.
As of March 2024, over 70 million people in Japan had reportedly been infected with COVID-19. The nation recorded around 132,000 related deaths by August of the previous year.
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