There are currently shortages of 500 medications. Pharmacist associations speak of a “permanent crisis”. The pharmaceutical industry is hoping for good weather.
In the 2022/23 winter season, many children in Germany were sick, suffering from the flu or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The problem: shortages of important medications, including fever juices from the pharmaceutical company Zentiva. The company is the market leader for ibuprofen children’s juices in Germany. “We had big challenges back then,” says Zentiva managing director Josip Mestrovic in an interview IPPEN.MEDIA.
The company had to put off worried parents because it simply no longer had any juices in its range. Whether the situation will repeat itself this winter? Unclear. “We hope that the weather will be good.” If the winter was mild, fewer children would get sick. Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Mestrovic says: Germany relies too much on the principle of hope. He doesn’t see a real strategy.
Medicine shortage: “We can light a candle and hope that the winter will be mild”
The federal government actually wanted to get the situation under control with a new law, namely the Drug Supply Bottleneck Combating and Supply Improvement Act, or ALBVVG for short. What sounds complicated is essentially the following: important medicines should be protected more reliably against delivery bottlenecks. However, this doesn’t always work at the moment. One problem: Karl Lauterbach’s supply bottleneck law only applies to around one percent of medicines. “The ALBVVG does not contain any regulations for 99 percent of all medicines,” says Zentiva.
Mestrovic says: “Unfortunately, one year after it came into force, the law is still not having the desired effect of ensuring adequate supply.” Is this why there is a risk of renewed bottlenecks? Not at the moment, says Mestrovic. But: “Is the supply secured in December? I don’t know.” “We can light a candle and hope that the winter will be mild,” says Mestrovic. “I don’t understand such an approach in an industrial location in Germany. After all, it is our most valuable asset: health.”
“Permanent supply crisis”: shortages of 500 medications
According to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) there are currently delivery bottlenecks for 504 medications (as of October 1st). Compared to the past few weeks (around 475 products), the proportion is increasing. With a total of around 104,000 drugs approved in Germany, this is still a rate of less than 0.5 percent. Accordingly, the Federal Ministry of Health also explains that there are only “selective delivery bottlenecks”, not a widespread failure.
Pharmacy associations are nevertheless alarmed. “Unfortunately, delivery bottlenecks have been part of everyday life in Germany for several years,” says the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations. The first pharmacists are already preparing for bottlenecks. You are stuck in a “permanent delivery crisis”.
Medicine shortages: “Government is flying blind into the next shortage situation”
The CDU/CSU criticizes: “The upcoming autumn and winter season could again become a hanging game for many parents who need antibiotics or fever juices for their children,” as the Union’s health policy spokesman, Tino Sorge, added IPPEN.MEDIA says. “The federal government is flying blind into the next shortage situation.”
The mail-order pharmacy mycare also fears problems. “It can be assumed that we will be confronted with regional bottlenecks again this year,” says pharmacist Martin Schulze, head of pharmaceutical customer service at mycare. There is a risk of shortages “as soon as the demand for children’s medicines increases again”. Regarding the supply bottleneck law, Schulze says: “In practice, we have not noticed any relief so far.”
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