medication
Pediatricians warn of renewed drug shortages
Drugs could also become scarce again in the coming waves of infection. photo
©Oliver Berg/dpa
The president of the professional association of paediatricians fears another shortage of important medicines. He looks “with concern to autumn and winter”.
The Association of Paediatricians is facing renewed delivery bottlenecks Medicines warned in the cold season.
“It is to be feared that if there are high waves of infection like last year, parents will have to walk halfway through the city to get fever syrup or antibiotics,” said Thomas Fischbach, President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ), who ” New Osnabrück newspaper”. The law against these bottlenecks goes in the right direction, “but will definitely not help us through this winter and may also fall short in the long run,” he said.
Practices also affected
Drug bottlenecks also partially paralyzed the practices because employees had to go through several pharmacies on the phone to find the drugs they needed, Fischbach told the newspaper. “We are therefore looking forward to autumn and winter with concern.”
A law passed in July makes stocks of several months’ quantity for frequently used medicines mandatory. Price rules are to be relaxed so that deliveries to Germany are more worthwhile for manufacturers.
Even with the reform, it is “not attractive enough for pharmaceutical companies to produce and sell drugs in Germany, for example because of the prescribed fixed prices,” said Fischbach. “These are commercial enterprises that earn more abroad.”