Pharmacists have to improvise: "Pharmaceutical shortages like in the Third World"

Created: 12/28/2022, 3:00 p.m

By: Klaus Wiendl

Half-empty drawers: pharmacist Thomas Bachhuber currently has to improvise.

For a rich country like Germany, this is absurd, he thinks.

© thomas plettenberg

Germany was once praised as the "pharmacy of the world".

You can't see any of that anymore.

Currently, pharmacists only manage the state of emergency.

The result: for some patients, survival is at stake.

Rottach-Egern - Thomas Bachhuber complains that disruptions in the delivery of medicines are now part of his everyday life.

He runs the Wallberg pharmacy in Rottach-Egern and the Antonius-Vital pharmacy in Bad Wiessee.

He doesn't make a den of murderers out of his frustration with the administration of shortages in medicines, he puts it plainly.

He names 385 preparations that are currently on a so-called defect list.

Often essential medicines that are currently difficult or impossible to deliver.

“These include entire groups of active ingredients, such as blood thinners, blood pressure reducers and beta blockers, which we simply cannot get.

For example, if a customer asks for an Ibuprofen 600, I only have two packs of it, then I'm blank again.

Wholesalers can't keep up with that either."

which primarily serve the basic supply of inexpensive medicines.

They make up around 80 percent of the German drug market.

However, shortages can also occur with original products.

"There are problems everywhere," says Bachhuber, although the shortage has been apparent for some time.

State of emergency in pharmacies: "Supply bottlenecks do not come overnight"

Since Corona, certain groups of drugs such as ibuprofen and tamoxifen have been difficult or impossible to obtain.

"A cancer drug just failed completely," says Bachhuber. Since this market is very profitable and everyone "want to get a piece of the cake", many pharmaceutical companies produce these generics, such as Ratiopharm or Hexal in Holzkirchen.

When asked about the company founded in 1986 by the Tegernsee twins Andreas and Thomas Strüngmann, it was said that “the current supply bottlenecks will not happen overnight”.

They are due to many factors, "for example, a lack of packaging materials or the exit of other generic manufacturers from the market".

The current industry service arznei-telegramm is clearer.

"The cheapest price as the exclusive criterion has made a significant contribution to the fact that generics production has been outsourced mainly to countries with the lowest manufacturing costs." The logical consequence is that production in this country has been shut down and the supply of generics "today largely on drips from companies hangs in Asia".

The long and disruptive delivery routes were accepted with approval.

A general relocation of the production of basic and active ingredients to Europe "is not realistic", according to the Pharma-Insiderdienst.

Structural problems are also a decisive factor in suppliers withdrawing from markets or stopping the production of medicines.

The statutory health insurance companies conclude so-called discount agreements with the pharmaceutical manufacturers, which push prices down significantly because only the suppliers with the cheapest bid are awarded the contract.

The prices are then fixed and the manufacturers cannot pass on cost increases during production to the customers.

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach lures pharmaceutical companies with money

According to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), there is only one way out if pharmaceutical companies can make higher profits so that more medicines are available.

He wants to motivate the pharmaceutical companies to produce medicines that have so far been less profitable and to make more deliveries to Germany.

So he lures her with money.

"The lack of economic reproducibility" cites Hexal as one of the reasons why generic drug manufacturers "feel forced to withdraw from the market for some drugs".

Shortage of medicines: pharmacist Bachhuber improvises

Bachhuber, a pharmacist for 30 years, can tell you a thing or two about that.

The situation is currently "very serious".

You can only do it with improvisation.

"Children sometimes get suppositories instead of cough syrup, if they are available at all".

For more than a third of the prescriptions, the prescribed drugs would have to be replaced by other brands, often with different potencies or packaging sizes.

At the moment he feels "like in the Third World, where there are hardly any medicines".

He no longer focuses on the pharmaceutical treatment, but on the management of shortages.

In a rich country like Germany, "it's just frustrating."

For many people, "It's not just about pain, it's about survival."

You can read more information about the region here.

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