Interview with the General Manager on the scarce commodity fever juice

Mr. Burkhardt, Teva is the only generic manufacturer of paracetamol-containing fever juices for children in Germany. This painkiller is urgently needed because small children in particular are not yet able to swallow tablets. Why have fever juices been in short supply since summer?

The production of fever juices is of course more complex than with a tablet, but for us it is a standard technology. The problem has two causes. On the one hand, the demand for fever juices depends on the cold season and was therefore very low in 2021 due to the measures against the corona pandemic. As a result, a particularly large number of children seem to have caught cold this year, and demand has increased significantly: we have already sold more than twice the amount that was in demand last year. To make matters worse, the other major manufacturer of fever juices containing paracetamol, which had a market share of around 30 percent, pulled out because production was no longer able to cover its costs. We are now trying to supply everyone with fever juices, but the production capacities cannot be ramped up that quickly. In addition, it takes an average of six to nine months from purchasing the raw materials to the finished drug.