Hamster purchases quickly turned many everyday items into coveted products. Because of Corona, many people now want to buy over-the-counter medicines. There are delivery bottlenecks.
Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Many consumers in Germany have bought medication out of concern for the corona virus.
In March, demand for over-the-counter medicines rose sharply and gave pharmaceutical companies a special boom. This was reported by several pharmaceutical manufacturers at the request of the German press agency.
"In the past few weeks, we have had to manage orders that are three times as large across our entire portfolio," said Ratiopharm's parent company Teva in Ulm.
In March, the demand for over-the-counter medicines, especially for paracetamol-containing agents and vitamin preparations, was much higher than usual. In some cases there had been delays in delivery. Teva not only increased capacities in production, logistics also worked in three instead of two shifts.
According to the group, Bayer is currently also seeing increased demand for over-the-counter medications - especially for cold and allergy medications and food supplements. One is "very well able" to meet the higher demand, but consumers are asked to limit themselves to the usual quantities when buying.
The Hessian drug manufacturer Stada and Sanofi also reported increased drug purchases. In the period before the exit restrictions in Germany, consumers had stocked up on branded products, said the French group.
Pharmacies had already reported a rush in the Corona crisis. "The demand for medicines and people's insecurity is high," emphasized the industry association ABDA recently. With cold and pain relievers there are many preparations from different manufacturers and therefore no shortage. The pharmacies have increased inventory. There is no reason to hamster drugs.
