Fw: (LML) Clofazimine supplies?

 

Leprosy Mailing List – March 17,  2020

Ref.:    (LML) Clofazimine supplies?

From:  C. Ruth Butlin, London, UK

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Dear Pieter,

In February, when I was in India, I heard that it has been almost impossible for several months, to obtain supplies of loose clofazimine there.

"Hansepran" (clofazimine manufactured and distributed by Abbott) apparently can no longer be purchased in the open market. I understand that production has been temporarily stopped. "Lamprene" (clofazimine from Novartis) is no longer commercially available, according to the Novartis website. Presumably it is still being manufactured for the Multidrug therapy blister calendar packs distributed through the kind auspices of WHO.

Have other LML readers encountered this problem?

Can anyone verify if in fact there is a genuine shortage of clofazimine?

Since projects in other neighbouring countries have relied on buying clofazimine imported from India, the impact of a shortage there is of international concern.

Does anyone know where or how one can now buy loose clofazimine for treatment/prevention of ENL reaction?

Perhaps there are manufacturers in China or Brazil or elsewhere still making clofazimine for sale for use in managing ENL reaction?

In the event of a clofazimine shortage, one would hope that the scarce resources of this valuable drug would not be allocated for PB patients to receive triple therapy (with reference to the WHO's recent conditional recommendation to consider triple therapy -with rifampicin, dapsone and clofazimine- for 6months as standard chemotherapy for all new PB cases)!

 

Yours faithfully, C Ruth Butlin

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LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder

LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/

Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com

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