Should we be worried about B12 supplies? Coronavirus has closed China and now India manufacturers. Who else supplies B12 for injections?

BBC News says India no longer exporting some drugs eg Paracetamol and B12.

Should we be raising concerns with someone about the lack of suppliers?

[fbirder]

It depends on how long it lasts.

Worst case scenario is it lasts another 8 months before a decent vaccine is ready. What happens after that depends on how many people are left alive. But it shouldn't kill more than about 50 million worldwide.

The rate of increase of cases in China is slowing, suggesting that their strict practices are working to slow the spread of the disease.

I am hoping that the NHS has been stockpiling things like this because of the likelihood of a hard Brexit. That's what I've done and I have enough B12 for another 15 months. Longer if I switch to weekly jabs.

The other places that may have been stockpiling B12 are the labs that take the cyanocobalamin made by the factories and convert it to other forms. I would be surprised if these weren't all over the world. That should help spread out the impact of the drop in production of cyanocobalamin in China.

The thing that worries me is the possibility of some morons on the Interwebs spreading rubbish about B12 being a cure for covid-19 and causing shortages. It's already happening with Vitamins C and D.

[Justiina in reply to fbirder]

Oh that sucks. I never imagined corona could affect availability of B12 anyways. My injection is still combo of B12+B6+B1 so that hopefully isn't hoarded the same way so whatever is made so far can't be reused . Future production might be affected naturally.

I was planning on SI but because of stupid Finnish rules I can't order B12 , chances it would get caught in the customs are quite high.

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Justiina]

Justiina, may be worth checking the rules in Finland around beauty/health supplements - could be that you could import injectable B12 for those purposes

[helvella]

I believe that Sanofi are manufacturers of B12 and supply it to other companies as an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). Though I do not know where they do that.

[fbirder in reply to helvella]

Sanofi Active Ingredient Solutions are based in Île-de-France, near Paris.

[meitu]

In the US, "VitaminQuick" online.

[Cherylclaire Forum Support]

Just ordered B12 from mycare.de.

No trouble, no price rise since last time, but do say that orders will take longer due to higher demand ( supplies generally, not B12 specifically ).

Whether to do with Brexit or "Interweb morons" or both, I'm not sure.

Under £70 for 100 sounds a fair price. Although not the cheapest delivery charge, they are reliable and translation to English easy to understand.

...Now I'm free to worry about toilet rolls and dried pasta !