Your letter provides an answer to the dangers of pharmaceuticals Association of Pharmaceutical Companies of Greece (SFEE) with which he puts things in their proper place.
Specifically, in the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Association’s statement on the topic: “Worsenting of the shortage problem during the month of August”, the SFEE He emphasizes, first of all, that the issue of drug shortages is global, long-term, multifactorial and complex and has nothing to do with the August holidays, when companies have been doing the same thing for years.
Additionally, pharmaceutical companies provide detailed analysis of all their sales to EOF since 2016 daily and the supervisory authority has the possibility to examine the data for any market subsidy.
Distribution to pharmacies and wholesalers as well as to hospitals is done through distribution companies (3PL – Third Party Logistics) and when a pharmaceutical company or distributor closes for the summer holidays, the orders delivered to the market correspond to the sales of 2 or 3 weeks in which the distributor or pharmaceutical company will close, unless there is an emergency, as SFEE highlights, adding that most of the market operates with a security department that covers emergency situations with an emphasis on critical medicines and hospital needs.
As long as all these movements are followed and it is found that there is a question of deficiencies, perhaps the causes should be sought elsewhere.
SFEE representatives also wonder how it is possible that there are no reports of shortages that worsened EOPYY pharmacies and hospital pharmacies in August, due to the closure or under-functioning of some pharmaceutical companies or 3PL companies and that these exist only in private pharmacies.
Pharmacies: For years, companies have been stockpiling the necessary amount of formulations before closing
It is worth noting that yesterday the president of Pharmacies, Th Skylakakis, emphasized that companies supply warehouses with the necessary preparations as they do every year, since the number of chronically ill people is known approximately and also the month of August is not a seasonal month with flu or other emergency diseases.
He also stressed that pharmacies are not closing in August anyway, so they are ready to deal with any emergency. He also noted that the country currently has fewer shortages than ever before.
According to the ministry, we are currently in a very good position against shortages.
In fact, the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, speaking about medicines, stressed that the deficiencies have been largely filled with the special platform where there is a complete record of all medicines in pharmacies and therefore the ministry controls what goes into parallel exports. As he actually said: “There can be no parallel export of a medicine that we somehow lack.”
At the same time, he added that he has already carried out, through the EOF, price increases for low-cost medicines so that they are no longer withdrawn from the market.
“It makes no sense to keep the price of a medicine below its cost because, ultimately, the one who will pay for it is the patient who will not find it. With this process controlled by the EOF, we will put the market in order and ensure that there is no shortage of medicines. Our goal is that the patient who needs a medicine can find it,” he emphasized.