Germany is experiencing a shortage of medicines for children

Germany is experiencing a shortage of medicines for children

“All orders for children’s painkillers and fever remedies that we had scheduled for winter storage have been cancelled,” said a pharmacy in berlin.

The causes of shortage

The laboratories allege the increase in demand and the lack of raw Materials to explain the shortage of pediatric drugs in Germany.

But experts say there is a third important factor: the financial profit, since health insurance companies pay 1.36 euros for a bottle of paracetamol syrup. A price that has been frozen for a decade.

“The rapid increase in the prices of active principles together with the frozen prices of products makes the production of medicines such as paracetamol syrups a loss-making business,” Andreas Burkhardt, CEO of pharmaceutical company You go.

Twelve years ago there were eleven suppliers of pediatric paracetamol syrup in Germany, but today only Teva produces it after another pharmaceutical company stopped doing so in May. your product, ratiopharmwill now have to cover 90% of the demand, something that will be impossible in a short time due to the lack of raw materials and costs.

Burkhardt considered that the government should alleviate the “systemic cost pressure” especially in the case of “critical drugs that are only produced by a few manufacturers”. However, the Federal Ministry of Health plans to prolong the current situation until 2026.

Source: Ambito

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Posts