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Apotex has enough APIs on hand to manufacture the first two products, said Jordan Berman, vice-president of global communications for the company, which fills one in five Canadian prescriptions. But it is still too early to know whether delays in obtaining API for the third will lead to supply challenges.

“About 98 per cent of our products are made in Canada, but for a small number, we do rely on APIs from India,” he said. “Most of our goods come on passenger jets and with the reduction of those flights, delays and costs have gone up. We have inventory in the country and we’re in good shape overall, but this is evolving hour by hour, whether it’s countries stopping exports or delays down the line.”

Our teams are working 18 hour days to keep the supply chain of this country moving. We wish there was a little more support Cargojet CEO Ajay Virmani

As demand for essential supplies surges, the nightly volumes of freight between cities that Cargojet Inc., Canada’s only national cargo airline, handles has spiked to 1.8 million tonnes, an increase of nearly 40 per cent. The company has hired 50 new pilots and employees, ramped up its sanitizing and cleaning routines and boosted the pay for its workers to help cover the expense of childcare and other costs.

In all, the measures will cost the company an extra $4 million to $5 million a month, said chief executive Ajay Virmani, who has also refused more lucrative international work to focus on domestic demand.

“We have not raised our rates, we have not gone to the market because we don’t feel that’s the right thing to do,” he said. “We have asked the government for help getting basic things like masks for our pilots and sanitization materials, but we haven’t received it. Our teams are working 18 hour days to keep the supply chain of this country moving. We wish there was a little more support.”