Overseas Chinese Buyers Rush to Buy Drugs Amid COVID Surge and Medical Shortages

Alarm in other countries as bulk purchases impact supplies

An empty shelf in a pharmacy in Beijing, on December 21, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

A dramatic surge in COVID cases has plunged cities and towns across China into an extreme shortage of medicines. As millions of Chinese scramble to get their hands on fever reducers, antibiotics, and cough remedies, buyers abroad are rushing to purchase drugs to send back to China. The sweeping purchases are causing alarm in other countries.

A pharmacist in Osaka, Japan who gave his name only as Kitajima, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 21 that fever patches, cough and cold medicines, masks, and eye drops are “being snapped up”  by buyers who are sending them to China.

Bulk-buying has left Japanese pharmacies with a short supply of drugs.

“Some drug stores [in Japan] are starting to control the amount of the purchase, and there are not enough goods coming in every day, which means a shortage of production supply here,” Kitajima added.

Long Queues 

On Dec. 7, China’s health authorities issued the so-called “Ten New Rules,” signaling an end to its zero-COVID policy and a shift to co-existing with the virus.

People wait in line to buy medicine at a pharmacy in Beijing, China, on Dec. 9, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

But the abrupt U-turn caused an explosion in the number of infections and triggered a public panic. Many cities saw long queues amid a frenzied rush for cold and fever medication, and even canned yellow peaches and electrolyte water was snapped up.

Zhang Yang (a pseudonym), a resident of the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 21: “I have a cough these days and I can’t get any cold medicine from the pharmacy. I tried several pharmacies and can’t find any. My aunt has a fever of 40 degrees [Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit]. My family [has] also tested positive; without any fever-reducing medicine, we can just hold on.”

Tao Hua (a pseudonym), a resident of Zhengzhou, in central China’s Henan Province, said that the epidemic is very serious in the city: “I can’t buy any medicine to reduce fever. My relatives all had fevers, and all tested positive. We have no medicine at home … My brother and niece both have a fever of 39 degrees [Celsius], and they have no medicine.”

The price of masks has skyrocketed, Tao said, with N95 masks selling for four to five times their normal price.

Frustrations Predate the ‘Ten New Rules’

Tao noted that the inability to buy medicines to treat COVID symptoms predates China’s relaxation of zero-COVID measures.

“During the city lockdown, we were not allowed to buy cold medicine due to restrictions on the sale of drugs in pharmacies,” said Tao. He explained that if people had been able to obtain fever-reducing medicine, authorities would have had no excuse to adhere to harsh measures such as quarantine sites.

“Now it is open, but we still can’t buy cold medicine. I feel that the government is teasing us,” Tao said.

Wang Yao (a pseudonym), a China native living in Japan, told The Epoch Times that there is little she can do for her relatives in Beijing “besides worrying.”  Wang said, “I have gone to several pharmacies, but I can’t buy any medicine[s] to reduce fever.”

Lack of Trust

There is another reason why overseas Chinese are snapping up medicines from abroad, according to Dong Hong (a pseudonym), a Chinese living in Japan.

“Nowadays, Chinese people do not trust the government, and they think that medicines and goods from abroad are better. Even if they [can get] medicines, they still think that the effects of overseas ones are better, because they have been cheated by the Chinese Communist Party since childhood.”

International Media Report Chinese Rush for Drugs

The desperate quest for COVID-19 medicine is making headlines worldwide.

Pharmacies in Hong Kong, Macau, and Australia report shortages of painkillers and fever reducers due to sweeping purchases. Pharmacies have been forced to restrict purchases, Taiwan-based Central News Agency (CNA) reported on Dec. 16.

According to Radio France International, multiple people called Macau Radio to report a shortage of antigen testing (quick screening) reagents and anti-epidemic drugs in Macau, as well as general cold and fever medicines. The Macau Pharmaceutical Administration Bureau responded by issuing guidelines instructing pharmacies to limit purchases to five COVID-19 tests per person and one box of pain and fever-reducing medications per visit.

Chinese living in Australia have recently started sending Panadol tablets back to China for family and friends. The Australian-made drug has been recognized by official authorities as being able to control COVID-19 symptoms.

In the United States, as China’s crisis coincides with the worst flu season in a decade, major pharmacies have started to run short of fever-reducing medicines and have begun limiting purchases.

A Chinese community webpage in New York said in a Dec. 17 post that the scenario—common early in the pandemic—in which masks were bought in bulk and sent back to China has emerged again. This time the purchases involve fever reducers and cough medicine.

A Chinese buyer posted a video on social media of a shopping trip to a U.S. Costco on Dec. 15: her shopping cart was piled high with an assortment of cold medicines, fever reducers, and vitamin C.

The post sparked outraged comments as social media users complained that Chinese buyers were decimating much-needed American medical supplies.

Chinese citizens are also complaining that other Chinese are hoarding medicines.

Beijing-based mother Chang Linyun, 42, said she asked a friend in Australia to buy fever reducers for her young son: “I wanted to buy two bottles of Panadol and two bottles of Nurofen ...... [but] my friend told me that the pharmacies near her home in Melbourne were sold out of the fever reducers because there were too many Chinese buying them.”

Drugstore employees help customers in Tokyo on April 13, 2020. Japanese pharmacies are seeing shortages as Chinese buyers stock up on medicines to send back to family members in China. Harly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Ripples of Panic

Kitajima worries that if Chinese buyers continue to stockpile medicines, Japan could see a crisis if an outbreak occurs there. The pharmacist said it is particularly worrisome, as the Japanese prefer to self-treat at home, rather than go to the hospital.

Japanese citizen Mizobe Hgasi worries that she will not be able to buy medicine for her child if she needs it.

“The Chinese in Japan are robbing all the cold and flu medicine, and the factories can’t keep up with the production,” Mizobe complained.

“I saw Chinese people [in Japan] posting messages in their WeChat circles selling medicine … they buy it in Japan ... and sell it to the Chinese [in China], and the profit is more than 10 times, reaching 700 yuan (about $100), which is too scary,” Mizobe continued.

Black Market Generics at High Prices

On Dec. 14, China Meheco Group signed an agreement with Pfizer Inc. for the import and distribution of Pfizer’s Paxlovid in mainland China, as reported by Chinese news media.

Earlier in December, Reuters reported, when a Chinese health care platform began selling Paxlovid—apparently the first retail sale of the drug in China—supplies of the drug sold out in just over half an hour.

Meanwhile, generic versions of Paxlovid and Merck’s Molnupiravir are selling on the domestic black market at high prices, according to the South China Morning Post. Yicai Global reported on Dec. 14 that Indian-made generics are selling for as much as 1,000 yuan (about $144) per box on Chinese e-commerce platforms.

Ellen Wan contributed to this article.