Watch the video: pharmacies produce their own medicines due to supply bottlenecks.
Weigh medication, chop it up, mix it up again – so that there is at least enough for emergency care. Due to delivery bottlenecks, many pharmacies lack basic medicines: fever and painkillers, especially for children. The Linden pharmacy in Augsburg feels the same way, which is why the initiative is being taken here. Employee Gamze Afsar and her colleagues now produce the medicines themselves. O-Ton Gamze Afsar, pharmacy employee “These are now the adult suppositories. These are diluted in the children’s dosage.” The Linden pharmacy produces, among other things, fever and painkillers for children, ibuprofen juices and paracetamol suppositories. But pharmacist Lina Koczian makes it clear: O-Ton Lina Koczian, pharmacist “That’s enough for emergency care. So children who are acutely ill are taken care of. It’s still good, but there isn’t enough now to get everyone ready for the holiday or give two or three bottles to the medicine cabinet.” The Linden pharmacy says it can produce around 100 bottles of ibuprofen juice per week itself. It usually sells about three to four times as much. The fact that so many common medicines are missing is new to Lina Koczian to this extent. O-Ton Lina Koczian, pharmacist “One thing is that the supply chains simply still don’t work the way they did before Covid. We get an incredible amount from abroad and often it’s just one manufacturer who is based abroad. If fails, then it’s just serious. But you also have to say: This is now a very German problem, because there is enough fever juice in other European countries, because the German health insurance companies simply pay too little. Companies in Germany get At least for their products and then, due to the increased demand, they currently deliver what they have to other European countries rather than to Germany.” The need for medication is definitely there. According to Lina Koczian, making them yourself costs five to six times as much. But so that at least the emergency supply is secured, many pharmacies, like here in Augsburg, will continue to produce suppositories and fever juices themselves.