How Pharmacists' Efforts in Managing Medicine Shortages Protect Patients
European Update on Medicine Shortages
- Medicine shortages are of significant concern at a European level as they are at a national level in Ireland, with most European countries reporting significant constraints on their medicine supply chains.
- In December 2023, PGEU conducted a survey of members to understand the worsening situation across Europe; the results of the survey were published early in 2024, and can be accessed here; the most significant statistic from this report is that each pharmacy across Europe now spends 9.5 hours per week managing shortages, this is a considerable increase on the 2022 figure which was 6.7 hours.
- In October 2023, the European Commission adopted a Communication on medicines shortages. This communication outlines a number of initiatives across the EU to help mitigate the problem of medicine shortages, some of which are listed below:
- Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism for medicines was launched in October 2023 to support Member States experiencing critical shortages. The scheme allows Member States to flag needs for a given medicine in critical shortage at the national level to other Member States so that they can indicate the availability of stock that could be redistributed.
- Defining a Union list of critical medicines - The Commission will publish a Union list of critical medicines, building on work with EMA and the Member States, as a first step to ensure the security of supply. This work began in 2023, and the first version of the Union list of critical medicines was published on 12 December 2023.
- Accelerating and anticipating the pharmaceutical reform to enhance the security of supply. The proposed reform of the pharmaceutical legislation introduces structural measures to improve the availability of medicines. Key elements include a new European alert system with earlier notification of shortages and withdrawals by companies, harmonised reporting criteria, mandatory shortage prevention plans and coordinated management of shortages by EMA. The reform would reinforce and strengthen companies’ obligation to ensure appropriate and continued supply.
What’s next?
- The IPU committees are currently drafting a position paper on medicine shortages, which will include proactive solutions on how medicine shortages can be managed better in the Irish context, and they would greatly appreciate your help in filling out this survey to inform this publication.
- Significant work is underway both at a national and European level to tackle the growing issue of medicine shortages.
Report Shortages
You can report shortages directly to our IPU Product File team at datainfo@ipu.ie, who will investigate the reason for shortage, and the anticipated return date.
The IPU Medicines Shortages Report is searchable and is updated almost every day. It can be accessed here.
Additionally, you can download a form from the HPRA website and report the shortage directly to the regulator here.
