BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is pushing for increased precautions due to possible new bottlenecks in children’s medication in the approaching cold season. In the coming autumn and winter, “a tense supply situation” could arise for important antibiotics and other relevant agents, he wrote in a letter to the pharmaceutical wholesale association. On Thursday, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices published an “urgency list” with a good 30 children’s preparations that have the highest priority. Lauterbach asked to intensify their procurement.
The list includes several antibiotics, nose drops, fever-reducing and pain-relieving juices and suppositories, among others. Lauterbach asked the pharmaceutical industry for estimates of the available quantities and the costs “for urgent procurement and storage until the beginning of the infection season”. If wholesalers incur additional costs for the implementation of this “extremely urgent measure”, the ministry will also consider counter-financing. The letter is available from the German Press Agency, the media group Bavaria (Thursday) first reported on it.
A law had already been passed in July to more reliably secure medicines, especially for children. As a safety buffer, it makes stocks of several months’ worth of frequently used funds compulsory. Price rules are to be relaxed to make deliveries to Germany more profitable for manufacturers. But the law needs time to take effect, Lauterbach told the Bayern media group. In order to prevent this in the short term, wholesalers should already stockpile important funds. “In this cold and flu season, concerned parents shouldn’t be faced with empty pharmacy shelves again.”
Last winter, delivery problems with fever and cough syrups for children escalated after a wave of infections. The professional association of paediatricians recently warned that delivery problems would have to be feared again if there were renewed high waves of infection like last year. The Federal Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers declared at the beginning of August that the companies were doing their utmost to quickly reach the statutory stock levels. In principle, the wholesale trade can only procure and stock medicinal products to the extent that they can pharmaceutical industry provide.
Lauterbach announced that his ministry would also formally determine and announce a supply shortage for the drugs on the priority list. This enables more flexible specifications and, for example, simplified import of scarce medicines.
Bavaria’s Health Minister Klaus Holetschek welcomed the letter to the pharmaceutical wholesaler, but it was not enough. “Autumn is just around the corner and with it the cold and flu season,” said the CSU politician. He again called for an early crisis summit by the federal government in view of the unresolved supply bottlenecks./sam/DP/stw