In Italy, an essential drug for people suffering from pancreatic diseases has become unobtainable. The medicine (Creon or Creonipe), unlike almost all drugs, it has no analogues that can replace it on the Italian market. The shortage has been going on for several months, but reports from patients have increased in recent weeks. Among them also Fedez: “Since I had pancreatic surgery, and almost all of my pancreas was removed, I need to take pancreatic enzymes to be able to assimilate food,” he said on Instagram. “I’m receiving lots of emails; it seems that pancreatic enzymes can no longer be found in pharmacies. I had a small supply but they haven’t been available for a month now and now I can’t find any anymore.”
The ministry said it is following the matter “with great attention and implements all the relevant activities aimed at guaranteeing the therapeutic continuity of patients”. The situation, he added, is “independent of the regulatory activities of Aifa, which has already provided patients and healthcare professionals with adequate information operational nature”. The last time last October the Agency had reported the problem, warning that it could continue until the end of 2025. Among the measures to contain the problem, AIFA invited doctors to make appropriate and prudent use of the Previously, it had also already authorized local institutions to import the product from abroad and prohibited the export of the drug present in Italy.
For its part, Viatris, the only company distributing the product in our country, has opened a direct channel with pharmacies to allow supply directly from the source. The company, however, does not produce the medicine itself: we have “received indications from the company producing the medicine, Abbott, of some difficulties in the supply of Creon (pancrelipase). The supply difficulties are due to the high demand globally “, he tells ANSA. “We are in daily contact with the manufacturing company to mitigate supply difficulties and reduce the impact on patients,” she continues. The manufacturer “has assured us that it is taking all necessary measures to make Creon available, so as to minimize the impact on patients”.
However, the measures implemented so far do not seem to have unblocked the situation. The advice is to “take a slightly reduced dosage for a period” rather than suspending it completely, says the deputy director of the Center for Research and Treatment of Pancreatic Diseases at San Raffaele in Milan and general secretary of the European Pancreatic Club, Gabriele Capurso. Which is recommended for patients “don’t panic because the product is lacking, but it is not out of production”. These drugs contain those enzymes that the pancreas – because it is diseased or removed, for example in the case of a tumor – cannot produce. These are essential enzymes for breaking down foods into essential nutrients which the body then needs for vital functions. The greatest difficulties are with fats: the pancreas is the only organ that produces lipase, the protein used to absorb fats. For some patients, a prolonged period of abstinence from the drug means facing the risks of malnutrition. This is also why some are turning to foreign pharmacies, especially in Switzerland or Eastern countries.
Already in 2017 and 2020 the same problem occurred “and as a patient association, reports Gianna Puppo Fornaro, president of the Italian Cystic Fibrosis League (LIFC), “we constantly monitor the distribution, reporting the shortage to the pharmaceutical company so as to request supplies with a urgently where necessary”.
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