The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

“It has become much more dramatic”: pharmacies are running out of medicines more and more often and for longer

2022-11-16T03:59:41.298Z


“It has become much more dramatic”: pharmacies are running out of medicines more and more often and for longer Created: 2022-11-16 04:47 By: Nadja Zinsmeister In Germany, pharmacies are more and more often affected by delivery bottlenecks. The development worries experts, because sometimes there is no product alternative. Munich – Germany is increasingly struggling with delivery bottlenecks in


“It has become much more dramatic”: pharmacies are running out of medicines more and more often and for longer

Created: 2022-11-16 04:47

By: Nadja Zinsmeister

In Germany, pharmacies are more and more often affected by delivery bottlenecks.

The development worries experts, because sometimes there is no product alternative.

Munich – Germany is increasingly struggling with delivery bottlenecks in some areas of life.

In particular, experts are concerned about the failure of medicine deliveries from abroad, as reported by the German Association of Pharmacists.

Pharmacists were already complaining about the delivery problems for cold products in July.

But the bottlenecks are increasing, and with them the number of products.

Everyday medicines such as fever syrup, but special and extremely important products such as cancer therapeutics are becoming more and more unavailable.

"More than 250 funds are currently reported as non-deliverable," said the association's vice-chairman, Hans-Peter Hubmann, to the

dpa

in September.

"The problem is very important, you have to say that clearly."

Pharmacists complain about delivery bottlenecks of medicines to Germany

It is basically normal that there are bottlenecks in the supply of pharmacies.

What worries pharmacists, however, is the increasing scale.

"The amount and the length has become much more dramatic," Hubmann continues.

More than twice as many products are currently affected as five years ago.

These include, on the one hand, everyday products such as ibuprofen or medicines for high blood pressure, but on the other hand also more specific medicines.

The latter case in particular can mean a high risk for patients.

Because while an alternative can be found for many products, sometimes there is simply no alternative.

In May, an “absolute shortage” of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen was recorded.

A serious situation for affected women: "You never know when the time bomb will go off,

Medical care in crisis: The German Pharmacy Association warns of supply bottlenecks for medicines.

(Archive image) © IMAGO-Images/Wolfgang Maria Weber

The vice chairman named two main reasons for the supply bottlenecks.

On the one hand, one can observe a decline in production diversity in Europe.

An example of this is fever juice.

Almost all suppliers stopped production because it was no longer economically viable due to the fixed prices and the pressure from the health insurance companies.

"Now there's another one and it can't handle the crowd."

Bottlenecks in the supply of medicines: expanding production in Europe would help

According to Hubmann, the second reason is related to “supply chain disruptions”.

A large part of the drugs are manufactured in China and India, but also in other countries in the Far East.

If factories have to be closed due to the corona virus or freighters are no longer allowed to call at ports, the products will ultimately be missing in Germany.

In addition, some deliveries are contaminated and therefore cannot be used.

"That's why we have been demanding for a long time that the production of active ingredients must take place in Europe again," emphasized Hubmann. 

But even if politicians were to create the conditions for this, an improvement in the situation would only be in sight in around five to ten years.

That's how long it will take until the appropriate structures for improved European production are in place.

(

nz/dpa

)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-16

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.