Farmaindustria recognizes the shortage of drugs but states that "it is not a public health problem"

Farmaindustria acknowledged Tuesday that Spain is producing a shortage of drugsbut says that this situation "This is not a public health problem". The director of the technical department of the organization, Emili Estevestressed that this was a "normal situation" in all European countries. The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps) is currently registered 397 active cases of lack of supply; In the past three months, 586 shortage issues have been resolved.

A lack of drugs that has great causes. The first is in the origin, in the raw material. "If the drugs are no longer used, the attractiveness of the synthesis of the raw material decreases"explains Esteve. In addition, if there is only one manufacturer of active ingredient, your problem applies to all companies that depend on it. This is what happened with valsartan, the active ingredient against hypertension: all companies, mostly generic, which depended on a Chinese society had problems. On the other hand, the original manufacturer has not been affected because it synthesizes its own raw material.

The second reason is framed in "Operations or logistics"Esteve adds. For example, if a company knows that its generic or biosimilar will come out in January and erode 30% of the market, "it is reasonable to schedule a manufacturing lower than 30%". But if this launch scheduled for the first month of the year is postponed until June, the lack of products occurs. "But this can also happen because a ship is unsuccessful.There are many variants," adds the expert.

Obligations

The third cause is grouped into economic problems. "These are drugs whose economic viability diminishes less and less until companies no longer have any interest," says Esteve. Another monetary factor is what is known as parallel trade, a practice of buying one product in one country to sell in another (at a higher price) and producing, at the same time, a lack of drug addicts. "It was a big problem in 2006 and now it's not as relevant," says Esteve. Then, Les Aaisons modified the drug-free monitoring model and increased surveillance and interventions.

Now, for every medicine that is missing, it is reported "Twenty alternative and identical products" on the market. In addition, Esteve recalls that in the event that there is no substitute for this drug, the company would be obliged to buy it "anywhere" and make it available to patients.