The European union Medicines for Europe (MFE) warns the European Union of a possible shortage of certain medicines this winter, due to the energy crisis.
The pharmaceutical sector is sounding the alarm. After a shortage of Doliprane in 1000 gram capsules in pharmacies last April, professionals are once again preparing for a potential shortage of drugs. It was Elisabeth Stampa, the president of Medicine for Europe (MFE), a European trade union, who drew the attention of the European Union to the risk of seeing several productions of medicines stop by this winternotably for generics. Manufactured by the Biogaran, Viatris laboratories, or the French group Gemme, the generics “represent 70% of the drugs dispensed in Europe”. A lack which would therefore be particularly important, and caused by several factors, among which, the energy crisis, the cost of production, but also, transport.
MFE specifies that in some factories, electricity costs have been multiplied by ten, while the commodity prices increased by 50 to 160%. The transport costs, they have increased by 500%. So many increases that today push Elisabeth Stampa to alert the European Union, asking that MFE be included on a list of priority industries benefiting from subsidized energy prices. “Any production stoppage, even temporary, would have negative consequences on the supply of medicines to patients”also notes the president of the union, supported by Capitalwhich also calls for the removal of a cap on the use of gas for pharmaceutical laboratories, whose industry is very energy-intensive.
What is a generic?
If generic drugs are in short supply, the wallets of Europeans, especially the French, risk paying the price. Indeed, the advantage of these substitutes is their cost, lower than brand name drugs and reimbursed at the same rate by the French National Health Insurance. Identical to the original drug, which serves as a model, the generic drug has the same active ingredient, the same dosage and the same mode of administration. What differs, these are the “excipients”, used in particular to give the medicine its shape or its taste. But for its effectiveness, it is equivalent, which authorizes pharmacists to use the right of substitution, and therefore, to replace the prescribed drugs with generic equivalents.