The law does not allow pharmacists to supply medications given by private individuals.

What has been said?

That the medications that people have given to help families affected by DANA are destroyed and do not reach their potential recipients.

What do we know?

That the distribution of drugs by individuals is prohibited by law. Pharmacists and pharmacies are the only people authorized to dispense medications.

Videos are circulating on networks in which the authors denounce that the Public Administration is forcing health professionals to destroy the medications that the population has given in Valencia after the impact of DANA on Tuesday, October 29, which left 216 dead in the province , according to the last official count.

But in reality the distribution—and, therefore, the donation—of drugs by individuals is not permitted, as reflected in the Law 29/2006 of July 26, of guarantees and rational use of medicines and health products. In fact, in the article 101considers it a serious violation. We explain it to you!

“The Public Administration is throwing away emergency medications for the Valencian population”

The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) warned on November 6 in a release that “in no case should medications that come from individuals be delivered.” The Agency points out that “to avoid risks to the health of patients, the medicines given must have the same guarantees, safety and effectiveness as those marketed under normal conditions” and that, therefore, “those that are received without complying with guarantees of traceability and security have to be destroyed.”

The AEMPS cites a release of November 4 from the Department of Health of the Generalitat Valenciana, where it already asked citizens not to give medications, replicating a message which I had already sent on the first day of the month. The Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy (SEFH) also explained it on social networks on November 2.

The request that individuals not give drugs and the need to destroy those that arrive in this way is not new. The criteria for donating medicines have been established since 1996 by the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), the latest version of which dates from 2011. In addition, Law 29/2006 that regulates medicines makes it clear that street pharmacies and hospital pharmacies are the only ones authorized to store, preserve and distribute the drugs (article 1.6).

During the early stages of the war between Ukraine and Russia, institutions such as the SEFH and the AEMPS made statements similar to those in the DANA context.

Security and traceability

Pharmacy offices and hospital pharmacies have control of temperature, humidity, entry and exit control, as well as all traceability of a medication. Medical devices can be affected by adverse weather conditions or even by the loss of stability of storage conditions. That is why it is common that some lots they retire of the market preventively. Donations from individuals do not allow us to know these details and are therefore considered unsafe.

Something similar happens with traceability. “It is essential that each medication can be traced from its manufacture to its delivery to avoid errors or adverse reactions, something impossible with direct donations,” explains the SEFH to X (formerly Twitter).

Another reason why medications can only be dispensed in pharmacies where there is a responsible pharmacist is to avoid possible medication errors, as explained the WHO guidelines. These medication errors They can range from mild to very serious if a person is given the wrong medication, to which they are allergic or that they cannot take because they have a disease that makes its use inadvisable.

Finally, donations from individuals are not made based on real needs and, therefore, can lead to waste of drugs, as AEMPS and SEFH also explain.

Exceptional situations

The donation of medicines is possible in exceptional situations as long as it is done under exhaustive controls, and by regularized institutions such as the AEMPS or societies. like the red crossin days of donation of medicines in which the safety and traceability of drugs is guaranteed. In the Valencian context, the Generalitat has assured that “the supply of medicines is guaranteed. In the case of the Ukrainian war, the WHO specified a list of criteria among which required that all donations correspond to needs explained by the Ukrainian ministry and that donors be authorized to market drugs, among others.

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Verificat is a Catalan non-profit fact-checking platform. It is dedicated to verifying political discourse and the content that circulates on the networks and to education for the critical consumption of information. It is part of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and the European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN)

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