CIPLA South African said on Monday that its board has assured all of its stakeholders that adequate contingency measures have been implemented to minimise the impact on their ability to ensure medicine supply, particularly for key therapeutic areas such as antiretrovirals for people living with HIV.

The company said its manufacturing plant had been impacted by the looting and riots last week, but had not been burnt down, as some reports suggested.

“Previous media reports erroneously stated that the facility had burnt down. We would like to assure all stakeholders that the facility was, in fact not, burnt, but was vandalised,” the group said. As a result, the company closed the site last week amid safety concerns.

The group said site assessments were under way to establish the extent of the damage at its manufacturing facility in Durban, and plans were in progress to get the site operational again as soon as possible.

Cipla SA acknowledged that the country was facing challenging circumstances.

“We are in the middle of a third wave and level 4 lockdown as Covid-19 infections increase and civil unrest and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng,” the group said.

Cipla SA chief executive Paul Miller assured the country that they would look at supply alternatives before opening the manufacturing plant again.

“We do not expect supply disruption as a result of this event, and work is already under way to ensure alternate supply and to reopen the site as soon as possible,” Miller said.

The group said it has ensured that contingency plans were in place at its other manufacturing and distribution facilities across the country.

The company has reached out to its customers, including independent pharmacies and wholesalers, to determine the extent to which they have been impacted by the unrest.

“We are working closely with them to ensure they have sufficient stock and are supporting them in any way we can to maintain and restore their operations. As a business, we will do everything possible to ensure continuity of medicine supply for patients, and also ensure the safety of our staff. We remain committed to our ethos of caring for life, despite these challenging circumstances,” the group said.

Cipla SA has promised to provide more updates as soon as it has more information.

sandile.mchunu@inl.co.za

BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE