It doesn’t matter how many pharmacy are reached: one, two, three or even four in a row. There are some drugs which are practically unobtainable in Italia and not only. From North to South of our country, some medicines disappear as soon as pharmacies are stocked up. We didn’t suffer a similar shortage even in the midst of the pandemic, when almost the whole world was in lockdown and the demand for medicines was justifiably very high. The latest bulletin of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa) reports the shortage of over 3 thousand drugs, of which 554 due to production and distribution problems, high demand, discontinuity in supplies and reduced availability. “The problem of drug shortages periodically comes to attention,” says Roberto Tobia, national secretary of Federfarma. “But we can say that the shortage of medicines is higher today, albeit slightly, than in the darkest period of the pandemic,” he adds.
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THE CAUSE
At the origin of this situation there is an exceptional combination of factors. First of all a rather insidious flu season, probably the strongest in the last 10-15 years. The circulation of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the Covid-19 infections, continues to add to the flu. And there are more cases of respiratory syncytial virus infection. In this period there is therefore a more widespread use of some drugs that allow you to manage the symptoms of the flu and Covid-19, as well as other flu-like syndromes. “The fear of not finding these drugs pushes citizens to buy them even without needing them,” says Tobias. “Another determining factor for the shortage of medicines is linked to Italy’s dependence on the production of some active ingredients,” adds the national secretary of Federfarma. «Many medicines, in fact, come from India and China. Due to the pandemic and the lockdowns, the factories located in these countries have slowed down their production – he adds -. To avoid similar consequences and greater peace of mind, we should try to be more independent in the future”.
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Furthermore, the shortage of medicines is connected to the current international crisis, triggered by the war between Ukraine and Russia. «Because of the conflict – explains Tobia – we are suffering from a shortage of raw materials which are not just active ingredients. For example, there is a lack of material for the packaging of medicines: aluminum for the blister packs that contain the medicines; the willow for the vials and bottles of syrup; and even cardboard is missing, a material that we underestimate, but which is essential for the distribution of medicines. The countries of the East that produce cardboard have decreased deliveries: to limit costs, which have increased due to expensive fuel, they have led to quotas on shipments».
THE REST OF THE WORLD
Drug shortages are not just a national problem, but a European and global one. As in Italy, in recent weeks there have been significant shortages of over-the-counter medicines in Greece, such as antipyretic syrups and cough syrups but also antibiotics and inhaled medicines which mainly affect children. Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris has sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides, asking for “a central policy at the European Union level for the problem of drug shortages that afflicts all EU member states”. France and Germany are also going through a critical phase in the availability of medicines. Similar notifications have been issued by the UK government. In Ireland, Medicines for Ireland, the national health organisation, recently listed 186 medicines that are in short supply due to growing global supply chain problems.
In Romania, more than 2,000 medicines have disappeared from the market and in Belgium, one in five medicines that was available last year is no longer available today. “There is a willingness on the part of the European Union to create a system of connection between the member countries, coordinated by the EMA (European Medicines Agency), to harmonize the problems relating to the shortage of medicines, seeking solutions”, says Tobia . “Italy has already started a series of discussions, opening a table with Spain, Portugal, France and other countries,” she adds. Even this, however, is a potentially effective solution in the future and not immediate. “At the moment, the most logical thing to do is to appeal to common sense and civic responsibility: we don’t stock up on useless stocks, but we only buy the drugs we really need at that moment”.
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