Due to a shortage of medicines, the Bavarian state government is temporarily allowing the import of antibiotic juices for children that are not approved in Germany. “We in Bavaria are leaving no stone unturned to improve the situation,” said Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU). According to Holetschek, it is now possible for the state authorities to temporarily deviate from the requirements of the Medicines Act (AMG) in individual cases.
On Tuesday, the Federal Ministry of Health officially identified a “supply shortage” for antibiotic juices for children. Pediatricians from several European countries also appealed in a letter to the health ministers of their countries to take action against the shortage of pediatric medicines. The health of children and young people is “threatened by the lack of medicines across Europe,” they wrote. “A quick, reliable and permanent solution is urgently needed!”, the letter says. The New Osnabrück newspaper (NOZ) had first reported about it.
Thomas Fischbach, President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ), is one of the co-signers. There is a lack of fever and pain medication in child-friendly dosage forms, he told the NOZ. The antibiotic penicillin does not currently exist either. According to the BVKJ, even seriously ill children do not currently have sufficient antibiotics.
According to Holetschek, two steps are now to be taken in Bavaria to alleviate the shortage of antibiotic juices for children. On the one hand, a new general decree should allow the government to temporarily introduce medicinal products “that are not actually approved or registered with us”. In this way, pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies could act unbureaucratically.
On the other hand, it should be made easier for pharmacists to produce their own antibiotics. Holetschek appealed to the health insurance companies to be accommodating when it comes to prescriptions and reimbursements if pharmacists produce finished medicinal products themselves that are not available.
The federal government wants to enable higher prices
The federal government had also relaxed the usually strict rules at the same time as it announced the rare medicines. For example, authorities could now also make it possible for pharmacies in this country to dispense a drug from Spain that does not have German packaging, explained the spokesman for the Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV), Florian Lanz.
According to the Federal Ministry of Health, there are many reasons for supply bottlenecks in medicines. Reference is made to “bottlenecks in raw materials” or “production problems”. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds blames the pharmaceutical industry: “There was a common trust in the pharmaceutical industry that, in case of doubt, it would ensure the care of patients. This trust has now been shaken,” said Lanz. The industry has historically built supply chains with manufacturing facilities overseas that are now proving to be unstable.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) also wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the pediatricians’ concerns were justified and referred to a corresponding law to combat the bottlenecks that the federal government had introduced in early April. However, it has not yet been decided by the Bundestag. Among other things, it should enable manufacturers to charge higher sales prices for children’s medicines in Germany, so that deliveries to Germany are more worthwhile.