Even if the counting differences from one country to another and the lack of transparency of industrialists make the global situation difficult to assess, the shortcomings are real throughout the continent. A situation that relaunches the debate on the profitability of the sector.
by Zeliha Chaffin, Marina Rafenberg (Athens, Correspondence) and Cécile Boutelet (Berlin, Correspondence)
“I have already done five pharmacies and I do not find a pediatric syrup for my baby. I have never seen such a situation!”, is alarmed Maria Andrionikou. Alongside this mother of two young children, in Greece, a forties regrets not having made reservations: “My son has asthma and I worry not to find ventoline”, explains -she. Panic reigns in this pharmacy of a suburb of Athens, from which the two women have just taken out empty hand.
In front of the pharmacy, a queue has been formed, a cruel witness to the scarcity that affects the country. “I do not know what to respond to panic patients who come constantly because they do not find antibiotics, antidiabetics, syrups or pediatric drugs, sigh eftychia kouteli, the pharmacist. I recommend them, when possible , to take generics, but we also miss them in some cases. “
The scene could just as easily have taken place in France, Germany, the United Kingdom … She says a lot about the shortages of drugs that have been affecting Europe for several months. Due to the differences in methods and criteria, which vary significantly from one European country to another, the situation on the whole continent remains difficult to assess. 2> “Exponential ruptures”
The counters of the national health authorities which publicly list the shortages make it possible to assess, in part, the magnitude. In Spain, 672 drugs are currently out of stock in the pharmacies. They are 773 in Switzerland, 375 in Estonia, more than 3,000 in Italy – which also includes products whose marketing has been stopped in the last decade. In France, on January 23, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) identified on its website nearly 320 drugs of major therapeutic interest in high tension.
The phenomenon is not new. But he is increasingly worried about the players in the sector, who see the supply breaks multiply year after year. In 2019, the ANSM thus listed 1,504 reports in France for the whole year. Two years later, this figure reached 2,160 reports, an increase of 43 %.
These situations result from supply difficulties whose reasons are varied. The drug manufacturing chain is complex and a problem is enough on a step to stop it. Contamination when formulating the product or the absence of an ingredient can slow down or stop all production. Delocating in recent decades of the manufacture of active ingredients, which makes industrialists dependent on foreign suppliers, has strengthened the fragility of this chain. However 80 % of the active ingredients used in Europe are made outside the continent, mainly in China, and 40 % of the drugs sold are produced outside the Union. But, for a few months, tensions on all products have worsened, especially for pediatric drugs such as paracetamol and amoxicillin.
You have 71.76% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.