There is officially a shortage of antibiotic juices for children
Quelle: pa/photothek/Florian Gaertner
Some medicines for children have been hard to come by for months. This includes antibiotics. The shortage is now so great that the Bavarian state government is taking extraordinary measures.
WDue to a shortage of medicines, the state government is temporarily allowing the import of antibiotic juices for children that are not approved in Germany. “We in Bavaria are leaving no stone unturned to improve the situation,” said Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) on Saturday. On Tuesday, the federal government officially identified a “supply shortage” for antibiotic juices for children. According to Holetschek, it is now possible for the state authorities to temporarily deviate from the requirements of the Medicines Act (AMG) in individual cases.
Antibiotics are also prescribed for children for potentially life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia or other serious bacterial infections. According to the professional association of paediatricians (BVKJ), these preparations are currently so scarce nationwide that not enough antibiotics are available even for seriously ill children.
“We are immediately introducing two measures in Bavaria to alleviate the lack of antibiotic juices for children,” said Holetschek. “On the one hand, the governments should, with a new general decree, temporarily allow the import of medicines that are not actually approved or registered in our country.” This would allow pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies to act unbureaucratically.
The second measure is an appeal by Holetschek to the health insurance companies – with the aim of making it easier for pharmacists to produce their own antibiotics. “In this I ask the health insurance companies not to refuse any surcharges or reimbursements for the time being and subsequently not to reclaim any payments that have already been made if pharmacists replace a prescribed but unavailable antibiotic juice with a drug they have made themselves,” said the CSU politician.
“And if the finished medicinal product is not available, it should be possible to dispense an antibiotic juice produced in the pharmacy without having to issue a prescription again.”