Smaller quantity packages to tackle drug shortages proves difficult

Drug shortages aren’t new in Switzerland but the range of medicine missing from pharmacy shelves, the speed at which they disappeared, and the duration of the shortages have raised alarm. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

Only a fraction of medicine was sold in smaller quantities since authorities recommended the measure to deal with medicine shortages.

Pharmacies throughout Switzerland dispensed smaller quantities of medication 1,400 times in April and 1,300 times in May, according to data provided by the Swiss Association of Pharmacists (Pharmasuisse) to Swiss public televisionExternal link, SRF. Information for June isn’t available, but experts expect the numbers to be lower.

This is considered a small success to deal with drug shortages. The sale of smaller quantity packages represented only a fraction of the total medicine sold.

This past March, a panel of experts recommended to stop the sale of big packages of medicines containing nine active ingredients. The move was an attempt to reduce waste and allow products to be sold to more patients during supply disruptions.

Although patients were to continue to receive the prescribed dosage, they may only receive a half or quarter of the original package. This allowed pharmacists to give the rest of the package to another patient.

+ Why is Switzerland running out of medicine?

The effort to repackage medicine turned out to be more difficult than expected, Enea Martinelli, Vice President of PharmaSuisse told SRF. The effort for repacking and the  paperwork associated with this so-called partial delivery is great. “The costs are not really covered. Therefore, the motivation to do it is rather low,” he said.

Christoph Amstutz who heads the medicine department at the  Federal Office for National Economic Supply said that he would have also hoped for more repackaging. “It is the first time that we have communicated such a measure,” he said to SRF. He also said in the future these measures should be better communicated.

He added that the pressure should ease when it comes to antibiotics thanks to expanded production in Austria by the Swiss generics firm Sandoz, which will spin off from Novartis this autumn.

Switzerland, like much of Europe, has been experiencing shortages of a growing number of medicine. In August, pharmaSuisse indicated that the supply problems are affecting all medicine ranging from anti-diabetes drugs to opioids and antibiotics.