A fever of 40 degrees is not unusual in the coronavirus. However, there are fewer antipyretic drugs on the German market and not only that. Why is this happening;
Customers come and go at pharmacy Arcaden in a shopping center in Berlin. Mostly parents who need medicine for their children. Because children cannot yet swallow tablets, there is a sweet-tasting syrup containing the active ingredient paracetamol or ibuprofen. Over ten million packages are sold in Germany every year. But now the shelves are empty.
“The paracetamol syrup was already finished at the beginning of the year,” says the pharmacist. “In the meantime, the ibuprofen syrup is no longer available,” he adds and points out that the pharmaceutical companies have canceled all their orders ahead of winter for antipyretics and painkillers for children.
Lack of raw materials, high demand and no paper
The Berlin pharmacy is not an isolated case. More and more desperate parents are speaking out on social media. “Of course we asked the companies why they couldn’t supply us,” says the pharmacist. The reasons given to us were the increased demand and the lack of raw materials. “One company even told us there was a paper shortage and therefore no packaging available,” he adds.
But the most important reason is financial. It’s just not worth it for pharmaceutical companies to produce painkillers for children. Health insurance funds pay companies €1.36 for a paracetamol syrup. This amount has not increased in ten years. “Rapidly rising drug prices and production while selling prices remain stagnant make the production of drugs such as paracetamol syrups loss-making,” says Andreas Burkhardt, CEO of pharmaceutical company Teva.
Teva with the ratiopharm brand is the last major supplier of paracetamol syrup in Germany. Twelve years ago there were eleven suppliers. Another manufacturer stopped production in May, so now ratiopharm has to meet 90% of demand, but this is unlikely to happen in the near future. And the problem is not only with painkillers, but also with cancer drugs that contain tamoxifen.
Politics must act
The Federal Institute for Medicines and Medical Products (BfArM) states that there are currently more than 260 unavailable medicines in Germany. These are common antibiotics, thyroid preparations, antihypertensives and also preparations that hospitals urgently need. In some cases, pharmacies can secure supply by producing the same formulations. However, these also need raw materials and personnel that they do not have. Pharmacies today prepare the drugs themselves for 12 to 14 million prescriptions each year.
Teva CEO Andreas Burkhardt believes that politics must take action. The “systemic cost pressure” must be relaxed, “especially for critical drugs produced by only a few manufacturers”, he underlines. The contracts, under which health insurance funds only pay fixed amounts, would have to be suspended until more companies start supplying again. However, according to the federal Ministry of Health, this does not seem likely. The situation is expected to remain as it is until 2026.
View the news feed and get the latest news.
