Compared to the rest of the world, Finland's pharmacies have a solid security of supply of medicines. However, pharmaceutical supply chains are vulnerable to disruptions, which can cause unavailability of critical medicines.
Last year, the Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea received nearly 2,900 notifications of drug availability problems from pharmaceutical companies, according to a Fimea press release.
This reflects an increase compared to recent years. In 2022 there were 2,335 reports of drug availability issues, up from 1,710 in 2021.
“Most of the problems are temporary and products can be replaced by a similar medicine at the pharmacy,” said Timo Mauriala, unit chief at Fimea.
However, in some cases, the lack of availability has affected a wider group of medicines, making it more difficult for patients to access them. Supply issues have also led to work extra hours of work at pharmacies, the agency said.
Some shortages to continue in 2024
In 2023, there were wider availability issues in three groups of drugs: several diabetes medications, including the high-profile Ozempic (semaglutide), medicines used in the management of ADHD, and a drug used to treat noncancerous prostate gland enlargement.
The long-standing lack of availability of Ozempic – which has recently gained use as a weight loss drug – prompted pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk Farma Oy to announce late last year that shortages will continue into the new year.
While Finland can expect regular deliveries of the product, it remains uncertain when supplies will be sufficient to fully meet demand, Fimea also said in the release.
In early 2023, problems in the availability of amoxicillin-based antibiotics in several European countries rose due to seasonal winter infections and a lack of capacity in pharmaceutical production.
However, these medicinal products are subject to storage as mandatory reserve supplies in Finland, said Mauriala, meaning that shortages did not pose the same challenges here as elsewhere.
EU attempts to address availability
In October 2023, the European Commission launched a series of actions to prevent and mitigate critical medicine shortages in the EU in the future. Citing recent critical shortages such as antibiotics availability issues last winter, the commission emphasised that coordinated action is needed to address the resilience of the pharmaceutical supply chain in Europe.
The list of critical medicines currently includes 200 products widely used in the EU and European Economic Area (EEA).
Securing the supply of antibiotics, including specific paediatric formulations, has been identified by the EC as being particularly important for forthcoming winters.
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