The issue with the medicine supply bottlenecks in Germany continues. According to the German tabloid the pharmacies “lack more than 1000 medicines.” Pharmacies’ owners report about a much bigger number of medicines in a shortage than officially announced by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). Their number on the website Lieferengpassmeldungen (parent-bund.de) is approx. 480 human medicines which are currently affected, but the Buld says: “We are currently short of 1600 medicines. Although the cold season is just starting.” Among the missing drugs are antibiotics, cancer, cardiovascular and diabetes drugs. The owners comment that they expect the situation to get worse in the autumn and winter as usual and criticize the Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach for the insufficient measures the government took to solve the supply crisis for life-saving medicines.
Carsten Moser from Stern-Apotheke Emmerich explains that 860 drug forms are affected. This includes “many vital substances” for diabetics, cancer patients, and cardiovascular patients, for example.
Local pharmacies talk about Medicine Supply Bottlenecks
The city pharmacy owner Michael Becker from Gengenbach explains that 226 medicines are not available in his pharmacy. The more disturbing fact is that “the situation is traditionally likely to worsen again in the autumn and winter months,” he warns. “We feel that the relocation of production abroad continues to pose major problems for us,” says Becker. Many active ingredients are imported from countries such as China and India. “Because of contamination, sometimes entire supply chains fail.” Here with a few words, the specialist summarized one of the major issues not only for the German but even for the world’s pharmaceutical industry.
Another owner Dr. Philipp Hoffmann from Diez cannot supply 250 medicines. Among them are gout medications and antibiotics. The pharmacist criticizes Health Minister Karl Lauterbach because he is trying to use “bogus proposals” to “convert the system even more to supply from foreign shippers instead of strengthening the decentralized structures,” Dr. Hoffmann says.
The political measures taken by the Federal Health Ministry in the summer of last year were incorporated in the Supply Bottleneck Act (ALBVVG), which was actually intended to counteract the critical shortages of medicines. Unfortunately, up to date the results according to the whole healthcare sector are not satisfying, especially when the number of missing medicines grows.
Source: Bild titelt: Apotheken fehlen 1000 Arzneimittel | APOTHEKE ADHOC (apotheke-adhoc.de)
Disclaimer:
As a service to our readers, MVS Pharma GmbH publishing provides access to our archived content library in our blog. Please note the date of the last review or update on all articles. No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
MVS Pharma GmbH will soon be launching an omega-3 dietary supplement onto the European market that has been developed for the highest quality standards in terms of oxidation avoidance and therefore greatest bioavailability. In addition, in vitro studies are currently underway at the University of Ulm, in which Professor Dr. Rüdiger Groß tested a patented mouth and nose spray (Virudol) that can eliminate various flu viruses based on natural substances. In addition, MVS has a wholesale license and has specialized in sourcing much-needed medicines such as Amoxicillin, Salbutamol, etc. from India through its local branch with a focus on local quality and safety testing, compliance with international GMP regulations and the highest quality level of user security (examples of local language brochures, identical units of measurement, batch control and full tracking, etc.).
