This time “a little sugar is not enough”, because the pill doesn’t go down: it just can’t be found. And the most damaged are the recipients of that famous song: the little ones. Because in pharmacies there is a lack of Amoxicillin, the most widely used antibiotic against various infectious diseases in children, from scarlet fever to type A streptococcus infection. This medicine is indicated in the list of those currently lacking, published on the website of the Italian Agency for drug. A list that grows more and more: from the 3,132 deficient drugs indicated last December, in fact, we have reached 3,354 in the list updated last Friday by AIFA.
Among these unavailable medicines, 47 concern, for various types and manufacturers, precisely Amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid. The reasons indicated by Aifa are, for 17 cases, the “high demand”, for 13 the “definitive cessation of marketing”, for 12 “production problems” and for the remaining 5 “discontinuous supplies”. But only for a quarter of these 47 drugs with amoxicillin deficient is Aifa currently able to indicate the “presumed end” of the stop to supplies. Only in 2 cases is the end near (one tomorrow and the other Wednesday 3), while for another 3 it is postponed to 31 May, for another trio of medicines to 30 June, another trio for 31 July and in 2 cases even by the end of the year.
But this crisis is already “increasingly leading to the prescription of inappropriate therapeutic alternatives, with the increased risk of adverse effects and reactions”, warn the paediatricians of the ACP (Cultural Association of Pediatricians) who, with the support of Sip (Italian Society of paediatrics) and Fimp (Italian federation of pediatricians), wrote to Aifa “so that appropriate initiatives can be activated to make up for the shortage of essential medicines”. Because, in the meantime, “the crisis is getting worse, given that even equivalent drugs are in short supply – explains the president of the Order of Pharmacists of Rome and its province, Emilio Croce – Unfortunately for pediatric suspensions, those from one to three years, you cannot divide the tablet or prepare the antibiotic in the pharmacy ».
And for the moment the only available alternative «could be Cefixime, another antibiotic effective on streptococcus, indicates Andrea Cicconetti, presidents of Federfarma Rome, however it must obviously be prescribed by the family doctor or pediatrician. The most serious deficiencies concern Amoxicillin syrup, while for tablets the situation could already be unblocked after next Wednesday. There are no increases in streptococcus infections, it’s just that now more swabs are being made to identify it, even in pharmacies, and only if it is present is the most appropriate use of the antibiotic used”. President Croce suspects the current lack of this for commercial policy reasons on the part of the multinationals: “As has already happened for other products in recent months, I do not exclude that it may also depend on a distribution strategy operated by the large manufacturing companies – concludes the president of the Roman order – which could divert more drugs to those European countries where the selling price is higher”.