Extemporaneous preparation as the last resort for drug shortage during covid-19 pandemic-lessons learned

Abstract

COVID-19, as a newly emerged pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), attacked almost 17 million patients with more than 668 thousand fatalities (8%) as of today July 30, 2020 (https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map. html), Created a significant strain on the pharmaceutical industries as well as pharmaceutical supply chains in terms of drug availability and delivery to the requested countries. This stain referred to many reasons, including but not a limited to; the Vast number of patients in a short period that increased demands, locked-down strategies adopted by some countries as a precautionary measure which limited the drug Import/Export process, shifting some pharmaceutical manufacturers their production lines to produce certain drugs in high demands, e.g., Intensive care and different antiviral drugs.