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There are currently delivery bottlenecks for many important medicines (symbol image)
Photo: Christoph Hardt / Future Image / IMAGO
Due to delivery bottlenecks, more and more drugs for cancer therapy are missing.
The shortage worsened in 2022, the German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO) announced on Monday.
“The drug bottlenecks have existed for years, but are certainly increasing at the moment,” said Hermann Einsele, Executive Chairman of the DGHO.
The causes are varied.
There are difficulties in manufacturing and due to the dependence on supply chains abroad with increased demand at the same time.
In individual cases there is the problem that medicines are withdrawn from the market for economic reasons.
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The most affected drugs are those that have been used in cancer therapy for years.
According to the DGHO, these include the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and nab-paclitaxel, which is also used for breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and lung cancer.
Supportive medicines for cancer patients such as antibiotics and uric acid reducers are also affected by supply bottlenecks.
There are bottlenecks, especially with "standard drugs," said Matthias Beckmann from the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics.
The alternatives are not always equal.
There could be stronger side effects.
"The women simply stop the therapy if the side effects are too great." The situation also affects the relationship between doctors and patients.
»Our relationship of trust with the patients has been permanently disrupted by the delivery bottlenecks.«
Last year, out of around 200 cancer drugs approved in Germany, around ten were "critically missing," said Bernhard Woermann, medical director of the DGHO.
The concern is that a supply bottleneck that is not compensated for will become a supply bottleneck.
"And then, that's the horror for us that the prognosis actually deteriorates."
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A register for delivery bottlenecks has already been set up in recent years.
Woermann called for more production sites to be set up in Europe in the long term.
According to Thomas Seufferlein, member of the board of the German Cancer Society, the monitoring must be expanded.
"We really need a preventive early warning system and the appropriate options to avert any supply deficits that may arise in good time."
Apart from cancer drugs, there are always shortages of certain drugs.
Recently, for example, certain fever juices or antibiotics were hardly available in pharmacies.
Pharmacies and trade unions see globalization as the cause of the bottlenecks.
According to a study by the pharmaceutical association vfa, around 68 percent of the production sites for active ingredients destined for Europe are in the more cost-effective Asia.
If there are production problems, contamination or a production standstill, this can also affect Germany.
The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) currently lists over 300 reports of supply bottlenecks - with around 100,000 approved drugs in Germany.
However, there are alternatives for many scarce medicines.
A delivery bottleneck does not have to be a supply bottleneck at the same time, emphasizes the authority.
yeah/dpa