It is not only Italy that suffers from difficulties in finding medicines, even commonly used ones. Moving on to countermeasures, the French government has banned the online sale of paracetamol products until the end of January. Greek Health Minister Thanos Plevris called for “a central policy at EU level for the problem of drug shortages afflicting all Member States” in a letter to European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
The worsening situation in China
The Paris decision is dictated by the fact that tensions over paracetamol-based medicines have persisted for more than six months, particularly in the types intended for children. The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (Ansm) has been asking pharmacists for some time to ration the sale to each patient. Already in December, the Ministry of Health had warned that, despite these measures, the situation remained “complex” and would not be resolved for several weeks. The government is now highlighting the worsening health situation in China, where Covid cases are exploding after the lifting of drastic health restrictions. Beijing has banned the export of paracetamol, while the country produces a large part of the active ingredient used by laboratories around the world. These supply shortages also fit into a wider context of community-wide drug shortages, starting with antibiotics such as amoxicillin.
Missing raw materials
The problem of the supply of some medicines has grown throughout the Union “due to the reduction in production due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis, the war in Ukraine and the reduction of the production process in the countries where they are raw materials,” explains the letter sent by the Greek government to Brussels. In recent weeks, significant over-the-counter products have been registered in pharmacies, such as antipyretic and cough syrups, but also antibiotics and inhaled medicines that mainly affect children. Among the actions announced after a consultation with the Greek Agency for Pharmaceutical Products (Eof) is expected to increase the prices of some very cheap medicines, so that they can be promoted on the Greek market and not, as would happen, on the international one where instead they are sold at higher prices.
Municipal pharmacies write to the minister
«There is an increasing lack of medicines distributed by pharmacies and it is really disheartening, for a health operator such as a pharmacist, to give negative feedback to patients, mortifying them with the impossibility of supplying them with an important variety of medicines . Municipal pharmacies believe this situation is no longer sustainable. Thus in a letter the association of municipal pharmacies Assofarm, signed by its president Venanzio Gizzi, sent to the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci. “It appears evident – reads the letter – that the phenomenon of missing drugs is due in part to the lack of raw materials for the production and packaging of the same by the industry, in part to a greater demand for some drugs for the treatment of influenza and Covid-19 infections. Finally, the factor concerning exports to countries where the price of some medicines is higher than that of sale in our country still needs to be evaluated with serenity and balance. The municipal pharmacies do not practice these operations and consider it unfair, especially for the population, to suffer any consequences ».
In Italy “delicate” situation but no alarm
Despite the problems here too “there is absolutely no need to stock up” according to Silvestro Scotti, secretary of the Italian Federation of general practitioners (Fimmg). The list of deficient medicines constantly updated by AIFA includes more than three thousand medicines, including some widely used by the population. «I would not speak of an emergency. There is a difficulty in procurement dictated by unfavorable international situations but also by imperfect logistics», warns Scotti when interviewed. «What is evident, however, is that calls from bewildered patients are on the rise. More and more often they arrive at the pharmacy and do not find what I prescribed. And so they are forced to move from one pharmacy to another, not knowing if they will find it. The peak was just before Christmas but even today the situation is delicate».