Pharmacies in European countries are witnessing an acute shortage of a number of medicines, especially pain relievers and anti-pneumonias. On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies attribute this shortage to the increasing demand for these drugs, and their inability to produce them to meet it.
Europe is experiencing this period of the year with a significant increase in cases of pneumonia and other diseases associated with the winter season, which raises the need for medicines such as pain relievers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. However, this need has become difficult to meet, and patients often struggle to find what to treat their bodies with.
This situation is mainly due to the great shortage of these medicines in the pharmacies of the continent, which prompted those responsible for the health sector to intervene and legalize the sale of some drugs. On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies explain this shortage by the high demand, which exceeds their production capabilities.
Europe without drugs?
European countries are facing an acute shortage of medicines, especially those used in protocols for treating colds, influenza and pneumonia. While recent studies indicate that the shortage affects about 3000 types of medicines.
According to a survey of European pharmaceutical groups, a quarter of the continent's countries are witnessing a shortage of at least 600 drugs, and 20% announced that 200 to 300 drugs have been lost from their markets, and three-quarters of these countries confirmed that the drug shortage this year is greater than its predecessor.
According to the Belgian health authorities, the country suffers from a shortage of at least 300 drugs. In Germany , the number of drugs missing from the market is 480, and it has exceeded 600 drugs in Austria . And a recent study revealed that the shortage of medicines in Spain has increased by 38% in one year.
France also suffers from an acute shortage of medicines, and according to local media , the shortage of paracetamol and amoxicillin began last July. This prompted the French National Agency for Medicines Safety to sound the alarm about this situation, and to recommend health workers and pharmacies to legalize the prescription of these two drugs to patients, and not to sell more than two packages of them per patient.
The Secretary-General of the Pharmaceutical Group in the European Union, Ilaria Basarani, described the situation as "very bad", as the shortage "includes all countries and affects all types of medicines." And the European official added, in her interview with "Euronews", saying: "Over the past seven or eight years, we have witnessed an increase in the problem, but today there are basic reasons that exacerbate the situation."
What are the reasons for this shortage?
There are many reasons for this shortage of medicines in European countries, between the increasing and unregulated demand for these medicines, the weak production capacities of local companies and the greed of their manufacturing choices, as well as Europe's lack of sovereignty over the production of active ingredients that enter drug formulations.
According to the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriadis, "one of the main reasons identified (for the shortage of medicines) is the significant increase in demand due to the proliferation of respiratory infections and the lack of production capacities (of pharmaceutical companies)."
This is the same as confirmed by the European Medicines Agency's chief medical officer, Stephen Thierstrop, saying: "We learned from a number of manufacturers that they had problems with manufacturing capacity, some of them related to a shortage of employees."
On the other hand, some voices in the European Parliament believe that the cause of the crisis is the greed of pharmaceutical companies, which tend to produce special and expensive drugs, in exchange for the production of daily use drugs such as painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs that do not generate large profits compared to the first.
As European MEP Michele Revazi pointed out, in her speech on January 17, she said: “Europe is facing a very worrying shortage of medicines, which shows the limits of a profit-based production system. If laboratories neglect to produce some medicines that are not profitable enough, So we have to change our suppliers."
For pharmaceutical companies, this shortage is primarily due to the disruption of the supply chains of the active ingredients used in the formulation of medicines. Among them is Sandoz, one of the largest producers in the generics market in Europe, which says it is experiencing supply problems in particular.
Speaking to Politico, a Sandoz spokesperson said the main reason the company has not met demand for the drug is the scarcity of raw materials and limitations in its manufacturing capabilities . Europe lacks sovereignty over its needs of active elements, while China and India produce about 90% of the global demand for these materials.
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HEALTH UPDATE