EUROPE : DISTRESSING SHORTAGE OF MEDECINES

At the European Parliamentary session of January18 2023, EP Michèle Rivasi drew the attention to the distressing and very worrying shortage of essential medicines in several member states.

The total number of lacking drugs reaches reportedly 277 medicines which are no longer available to hospitals and pharmacies, due to a rupture in stock, including medicines such as Dolipran, Paracétamal and antibiotics required to deal with seasonal infectious diseases.

The list of drugs that are no longer available is getting longer by the day.

The shortage is not due to more illnesses but to the fact that pharmaceutical companies have stopped or at least reduced the production because the sale does not generate enough profit.

The alarm bells are ringing since 10 years, but the EU and more specifically Ursula Von der Leyen, chairwoman of the EU commission, are doing nothing to solve the problem by, for example, imposing manufacturers to continue supplying the 277 medicines for which there are major shortages on a regular basis. For many people, some medicines such as, for example, Euthyral ( for thyroid problems and Hashimoto ) are vital and the lack of it life-threatening.

It is totally unacceptable that the EU invests in billions of vaccines that do not work but does nothing to provide necessary and/or life-saving drugs.