Swiss pharmacists point out drug shortages

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Switzerland lacks a number of serious medicines, the situation could worsen. She spoke about this on February 13 in an interview with the news portal Blick pharmaSuisse President Martin Ruggli.

According to her, pharmacies are looking for alternative medicines every day, analogues of original products. This creates serious tension and takes a lot of time, the expert stressed.

“The shortage applies to the entire range. About seven percent of all medicines covered by health insurance are not available,” Riggly added.

The pharmacist added that a number of antibiotics, painkillers, heart medications and hypertension medications have disappeared from sales. The range of drugs for depression, epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease has also decreased.

“If we had to go through a long, cold winter with a lot of bad colds, it could become very problematic,” she commented on the lack of antibiotics.

Most of the substances active in medicines are produced by India and China, which have reduced the export of these drugs due to the pandemic.

Riggly added that it will take time to solve the problem, it is necessary to find suppliers and manufacturers from outside Asia.

As Sergei Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group, told Izvestia earlier in February, the reason for the shortage of a number of drugs is the refusal of manufacturers to produce them due to a decrease in sales profitability. He also added that much depends on the situation with the availability of substances and the solution of logistical issues.

According to the director of the SRO “Association of Independent Pharmacies”, the head of the Alliance of Pharmaceutical Associations Victoria Presnyakova, the lack of certain drugs in pharmacies is a temporary situation. The industry is experiencing problems with logistics, the specialist concluded.

At the end of January, one of the largest manufacturers in the European drug market, Sandoz, announced a tense situation with supplies in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe. Problems in pharmaceutical companies that began during the coronavirus pandemic have now been compounded by inflation and a serious energy crisis.

In particular, the Belgian authorities reported a shortage of almost 300 medicines. In Germany, this number is 408, and in Austria, more than 600 drugs are not available in pharmacies. More than 3,000 medicines are included in Italy’s list.

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