Enlightenment and Suggestions on the Construction of Information Platform and Processing Mechanism of Drug Shortages in Developed Countries to China

Objective To study how to improve and perfect the information platform and processing mechanism of drug shortages in China.Methods By searching the relevant policies from official websites of FDA,European Medicines Agency(EMA),Health Canada(HC)and National Health Commission,the good experience of the United States,the European Union and Canada in the construction of information platform and processing mechanism of drug shortages was summarized for reference in China.Results and Conclusion China has initially established the processing mechanism of drug shortages,but the platform construction should be improved,and the information disclosure of drug shortages varies from province to province.We should improve the information platform of drug shortages,strengthen the disclosure and communication of information,enrich the processing tools and measures after the drug shortages occurs,and strengthen the cooperation with relevant associations and other non-governmental departments.

Optimal EOQ Model for Deteriorating Items Considering the Incremental Quantity Discounts and Shortages

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Anticipated Actions to Reduce Energy Shortages in the Residential Sector

This study investigates the electric energy shortages impact upon the residential sector in Riyadh city, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) resulting from severe power outages. The results reveal the extent of hardship and high costs the residential will suffer and endure. These outages occur and extend for longer durations. To mitigate these consequences, a method is suggested known as “willingness-to-pay” to seek the ability and willingness of consumers to pay to avert these power outages and energy shortages. Two approaches have been developed and utilized. The first one is based on a consumer survey to estimate his perceived costs. Outages occur in specific periods and last for longer durations. The second approach focussed on developing a mathematical model to complement the survey approach as this model can decrease the size of the problem complexity associated with consumer lack of experience in evaluating and assessing the worth of service reliability and quality.

Impact of Electricity Shortages on Productivity: Evidence from Manufacturing Industries

Electricity shortages present a significant constraint on manufacturers,who rely on electricity as an important input into production.In China,electricity supply has been growing rapidly.However,the rapid industrialization sometimes makes the power supply still unable to meet the demand.Using a survey of 1673 Chinese manufacturing firms,this paper explores how firms response to electricity shortages and its impact on productivity.We find that self-generation of electricity and investment in Research and Development(R&D)have significant positive relationships with electricity shortages.Further investigations reveal that self-generation is the most common way to deal with electricity shortages.However,it aggravates productivity loss.Though investment in Research and Development can promote productivity,it cannot offset the negative impact of electricity shortages on productivity.Analyses on subsamples show heterogeneity in the impacts of electricity shortages across firms.In particular,large firms are more inclined to invest in R&D than small and medium-sized firms are.They are also the one who suffer significant productivity loss due to self-generation of electricity.Though it is possible for medium-sized firms to reduce productivity loss through R&D,they are not likely to invest in R&D as a response to electricity shortages.This study illustrates that firms can hardly have effective solutions to electricity shortages,and policy makers should take great efforts to increase electricity supply.

Water Shortages in China's Cities

"Water,woater evenyuwhere,and nary a drop to drink!"Poetry becomes reality in China,as experts scramble to find new supplies of the preious liquid to slake the thirst of a growing population and industry.

Mitigating Energy Shortages in China

The recent electricity supply shortage in the People’s Republic of China(PRC)is driven by a disequilibrium in demand and supply.Energ y demand has picked up with the economy recovering and industry growing,strongly supported by solid merchandise export growth.At the same time,soaring coal prices have hit power producers curtailing growth in electricity supply.

Analysis on Causes of Drug Shortages and Countermeasures

Objective To analyze the causes of drug shortages in China and put forward some countermeasures and suggestions accordingly.Methods Based on the relevant data of 14 provinces that issued the lists of drug shortages from 2018 to 2020,377 kinds of drugs were sorted out first,and then the features of shortage were analyzed descriptively.Finally,the degree and causes of shortage were studied based on field investigation and literature summary.Results and Conclusion Among the drugs in short supply across the country,69.2%of them were listed in the National Medical Insurance Catalogue,37.1%were essential drugs and 26.5%were low-price drugs.They were used for different diseases,and most were for treating nervous system and blood system.There were many reasons for drug shortages.For instance,any problems in supply chain(production,circulation,use)could lead to drug shortages,of which the production accounted for the largest proportion.This paper puts forward targeted measures to solve drug shortages from the aspects of unwillingness and inability of manufacturing enterprises in their production.

An Optimal Policy with Quadratic Demand, Three-Parameter Weibull Distribution Deterioration Rate, Shortages and Salvage Value

The present paper focuses an optimal policy of an inventory model for deteriorating items with generalized demand rate and deterioration rate. Shortages are allowed and partially backlogged. The salvage value is included into deteriorated units. The main objective of the model is to minimize the total cost by optimizing the value of the shortage point, cycle length and order quantity. A numerical example is carried out to illustrate the model and sensitivity analyses of major parameters are discussed.

Analysis of the Impact of Inventory Shortages on the Supply Chain

With the continuous development of economic globalization,especially in the face of expanding COVID-19 pandemic,the supply shortage of suppliers will directly affect the ordering strategy of enterprises,which will cause price fluctuations in the commodity market and corporate profits.We assume that the demand for the product in the market is constant,and the supply determines the product price.An EOQ model is constructed with a supply shortage under the additive supply.We find that the optimal order quantity is consistent with the classic EOQ without considering product price changes;after introducing the price function,we analyze the relationship between the product’s market price and the seller’s optimal profit and the supplier uncertainty.The research results show that the product’s market price will increase with the increase of the out-of-stock quantity.At the same time,the uncertainty will decrease,and the seller’s optimal profit will decrease as the average stock-out and uncertainty increase.

A New Continuous-Production Lot-Size Model with Increasing Time-Varying Demand and Variable Rate of Production Considering Shortages

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Effects of Desalination Processes on the Water Circulation and Earth System

Desalination is emerging as a promising alternative among various technologies to resolve water shortage. However, desalination requires a sufficient energy and cooling device and therefore poses limitations for its installation and application. In particular, many countries suffering water deficits are economically underdeveloped and cannot afford the technology. As this technology, which changes seawater into freshwater, has little environmental impact, developed countries will need to assist less developed countries to introduce this technology as a humanitarian effort. This will help reduce the number of countries that have experienced difficulty with development.

Modelling Economic Order Quantities,Considering Buy and Repair Options for Defective Items,and Allowing for Shortages and Inspection Errors

Nowadays,it is common for suppliers to be separated from their buyers by great distances.This means that,if some items in the lot turn out to be defective,the distance makes it uneconomical to order replacements from the original supplier.Moreover,both Type I and Type II errors may occur in the screening process for eliminating defective items and the combination of defective items and inspection errors may lead to shortages.Working with these assumptions,this paper develops two distinct models.Under the first model,defective items are repaired by a local repair shop subject to a repair charge and a mark-up margin.Under the second model,a local supplier replaces the defective with good ones,but at a higher cost.The expected total profit per cycle is developed,together with the expected cycle time,and,employing the renewal reward theorem,the objective function is derived,from which the optimum values are obtained for the order and shortage quantities.The paper presents numerical results and a discussion for both models.The study finds that repairing defective items generally leads to greater total profit than purchasing local replacements.

Optimal pricing, replenishment scheduling, and preservation technology investment policy for multi-item deteriorating inventory model under shortages

In a wholesale shop,the retailer is required to keep an inventory of various ranges of a product due to uncertainty in consumer preferences and behavior.Different Economic Order Quantity(EOQ)models for each variety of a product are needed for optimum level of inventory.EOQ model decides how much stock a shopkeeper has to store,according to demand and deterioration of different items to optimize the inventory policy of multiple products.Items like fashion,food,vegetables,pharmaceuticals,etc.,deteriorate in the retailer’s warehouse during storage.An investment is required in preservation technology to significantly reduce the deterioration rate,reduce economic losses,and increase business competitiveness.Here,a multi-item deteriorating EOQ model with a fixed cycle duration has been developed incorporating the preservation technology.The demands for the items are a quadratic function of the selling price,and shortages are allowed.The main objective is to determine the optimal selling price,investment under preservation,the time length up to zero inventory,order quantity of the proposed inventory model such that the overall profit will be maximized.First,we prove that the optimal selling price and investment in preservation exist and are unique.Next,the total profit per unit time is a concave function of selling price and preservation technology investment.An algorithm is designed to obtain the optimum joint policy.A numerical example has been given to illustrate the model,and sensitivity analysis is conducted,which gives some managerial insights.

Resource Shortages The Key

Since a critical report on China's medical system reform was issued in mid-2005, it has become a major bone of contention. In April 2007, the State Council, China's cabinet, decided that from this year,economically developed provinces should single out one or two cities to experiment with the urban basic medical insurance system that focuses on serious diseases. Meanwhile,the Ministry of Health invited seven research institutions to independently work out medical reform schemes. Ministry sources said that the finalized scheme would come into effect later this year.But will these efforts help to ease the problem of high medical expenses in China? And is it true that current problems of China's medical system lie in the "over marketization" as some experts have pointed out? Professor Cai Jiangnan, from the School of Economics, Fudan University,and Professor Zhou Qiren,from the China Center for Economic Research, Peking University,put forward their different views on this issue, based on their long-term research of China 's medical system reform.

Limited Production Policy Becomes Clear And Acute Shortages Of Alumina Exceed Expectations

As the macroeconomic situation is still difficult and there is no substantial stimulus prompted by news,the aluminum prices have fluctuated widely between 16,000-17,000 yuan/ton.Recently,Henan Province announced limited production across the province during the heating season and the Ministry of Environmental Protection also declared that30%limited production during the heating season will not overlap the policy of

Optimal Decision Rule of the inventory Problem for Deteriorating items with Shortages and Time－varying Demand

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Optimizing COVID-19 vaccination programs during vaccine shortages

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine shortages occur due to various types of constraints, including interruptions in production/supply, higher-than-expected demands, and a lack of resources such as healthcare capacity to administer vaccines. Scientifically informed epidemic models have been utilized as pivotal tools to optimize the immunization programs subject to vaccine shortages. The current paper reviews modelling methods to optimize the allocation strategies of vaccines with differential efficacies by using various model-based outcome measures. The models reviewed in this study are expected to be adopted and extended to make contributions on policy development for disease control under the vaccine shortage scenario.

Effect of the Policies to Prevent Drug Shortage and Stabilize Drug Prices in Medical Institutions

Objective To evaluate the effect of some policies to prevent drug shortage and stabilize drug prices,and to provide reference for improving relevant policies.Methods With a combination of random stratified sampling and quota sampling,532 medical institutions in 20 provinces were selected to carry out questionnaire surveys.Then,a comparative analysis was made to study the changes of drugs on the shortage list and drugs on non-shortage list before and after the release of the policy of ensuring supply and stabilizing prices.Results and Conclusion The policy played an important role in curbing the growth of drug shortage in the medical institutions,but it did not curb the growth of drugs on non-shortage list.Besides,the drugs on non-shortage list showed an overall fluctuation and upward trend.Meanwhile,from the perspective of drug prices,the price stability problem of drugs on the shortage list and on the non-shortage list became more serious,and the average price increase was 256% and 239%,respectively.The implementation of policies related to the supply and price stability of drugs prevents the growth trend of drug shortages in the list of medical institutions,which has been recognized by most medical institutions.However,there is an increasing trend in the number of drugs on non-shortage list.In addition,the price increase of drugs on both the shortage list and non-shortage list is severe.Some medical institutions report that they have difficulties in using the information reporting system of drug shortage and the classification,grading and the alternative use of drug shortages.It is recommended to strengthen the management of price stabilization of drugs on the shortage list.Further attention should be paid to the supply and price stabilization of drugs on non-shortage list.At the same time,trainings in the classification and substitution of drug shortage and information reporting system should be actively organized,thus comprehensively improving the capabilities of medical institutions at all levels to deal with the problem of drug shortage.

Fuzzy Inventory Model for Deteriorating Items with Time Dependent Demand and Partial Backlogging

In this paper we developed a fuzzy inventory model for deteriorating items with time dependent demand rate. Shortages are allowed and completely backlogged. The backlogging rate of unsatisfied demand is assumed to be a decreasing exponential function of waiting time. The demand rate, deterioration rate and backlogging rate are assumed as a triangular fuzzy numbers. The purpose of our study is to defuzzify the total profit function by signed distance method and centroid method. Further a numerical example is also given to demonstrate the developed crisp and fuzzy models. A sensitivity analysis is also given to show the effect of change of the parameters.