Bangalore: Patients on a regular dose of penicillin are being put to great hardship — there is an acute shortage of the drug in the market for the past three months and those on the drug have been running from pillar to post to get a single vial.

Long acting penicillin, which is an injection to be taken once in 21 days (known by the generic name, benzthine penicillin) is commonly prescribed for rheumatic heart disease and may also be used for respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, sexually-transmitted disorders such as syphilis and as a post-operative care antibiotic.

The two brands available in the market include "Pennidure," manufactured by Wyeth Limited and "Longacillin" manufactured by Hindustan Antibiotics Limited (HAL), which is a Government of India undertaking.

The State Government-run Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Limited (KAPL), a subsidiary of HAL, also produces and markets the generic version of the drug.

At least 10,000 to 12,000 vials of the drug are consumed every month in the State, according to industry sources.

"We are visited by least 10 persons every day, asking for long acting penicillin but we have to send them back as we have not had stocks for the last three months," said V.R.V. Mohite of Mohite Medicals at R.T. Nagar. Shilpa Patil, medical director of Wyeth India, said the shortage was not just in Karnataka but throughout the country and was mostly to do with lack of raw material supply from the Government.

"We depend on Hindustan Antibiotics for our raw material supply and since they have not been giving us a regular supply, we are not able to meet the demand," Dr. Patil told The Hindu.

Drug price

However, a retailer suggested that with drug price control being in place, many manufacturers may not be willing to come under the drug price control regime.

Rajendra Kulkarni, general secretary of the Association of Medical and Sales Representatives of Karnataka and a marketing executive for Hindustan Antibiotics, said that since many of the employees in the government undertaking were encouraged to take voluntary retirement, there was dearth of people to market the company's products.

"There are only two medical representatives who have to market "Longacillin" for the whole of Karnataka. So, it is imperative that there will be shortage of the drug in certain areas," he said.

An employee of KAPL said that the company was mostly supplying benzthine penicillin to government hospitals, so the shortage was more acute in private hospitals and retail outlets.

Old stock

According to Victoria Hospital authorities, the stocks available at the moment are old and the hospital has not received fresh stocks from the manufacturers for the past two months. "Benzthine penicillin is a basic antibiotic and is one of the drugs in the essential drug list. We get hundreds of patients here and many of them are children suffering from rheumatic heart disease. How will they survive without the medicine," a doctor at the hospital, they said.

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