The Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (Aemps) has focused on the medicines that are missing in Spain. The entity, dependent on the Ministry of Health, indicates that the three laboratories that present the most shortages of marketed treatments are Normon (104 notifications), Viatris (97) and Teva (85). In total, Mónica García’s department warns that 4% of the treatments that should be available are not found in hospitals and pharmacies.
These three pharmaceutical companies are followed by companies such as Accord, Cinfa or Pfizerwhich throughout the first six months of 2024 have had to notify the Agency that some of their products were not in the sales channel. “There have been some supply problems that have made it necessary for the Medicines Agency to take exceptional measures to guarantee the continuity of patient treatments,” explains the entity chaired by María Jesús Lamas. One of the examples that explain the situation is that of cisplatin, a drug used for lung cancer and that Pfizer stopped supplying due to a manufacturing problem at its facilities.
Derived from the aforementioned problem, carboplatin also went into shortage. “Due to the shortage of cisplatin, some of the medications containing carboplatin saw their situation worsen while others faced a supply problem as they were the available alternative to cover the lack of cisplatin,” explains the Agency.
On the other hand, one of the great difficulties that Spanish healthcare has had is caused by the lack of Kreon, a drug that is used to combat pancreatic diseases. “During the first half of 2024, Viatris Pharmaceuticals notified the Agency of supply problems for these medicines throughout the EU due to manufacturing plant capacity problems and an increase in demand,” details the entity.
Other affected drugs are the different presentations of Ozempic (Novo Nordisk), Trulicity (Lilly) and Victoza (Novo Nordisk). These drugs are authorized for type 2 diabetes not sufficiently controlled with diet and exercise. The Aemps, in April 2024, already pointed out the importance of prescribing these medications “only to patients with diabetes”, since cases of prescription have been detected for indications not included in the technical sheet such as weight loss.
At the global level, The drugs that are suffering the most from supply problems are, in descending order, those intended for the nervous system, followed by antibiotics and drugs for the cardiovascular system.. However, shortage levels remain stable compared to the final months of last year.
Precisely, shortages have increased in the cardiovascular area (176 compared to 189 at the end of last year), in antineoplastic and immunomodulatory agents (115 compared to 164), in blood drugs and other hematopoietic organs (70 compared to 84) and slightly in the respiratory system (38 compared to 48). However, the lack of antimicrobials has slightly decreased, going from 220 problems reported at the end of 2023 to 190 so far this year. Failures in the nervous system have also dropped to those same levels (from 363 to 319), although the General Council of Pharmaceutical Colleges itself, the body that represents Spanish pharmacists, warns that Lexatin, the well-known anxiolytic, is the medication that has presented the greatest shortages in pharmacy offices in mid-October.
