Ingelheim / Mainz (dpa / lrs) – According to Boehringer Ingelheim’s head of Germany, politics could counter the supply shortages of medicines. For example, it could be stipulated that health insurance companies would have to conclude their discount contracts for pharmaceuticals not only with one, but with several manufacturers, said Sabine Nikolaus of the German Press Agency in Ingelheim. It is also conceivable that one of these manufacturers would then have to produce in Europe in order to ensure greater delivery security.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Health Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (SPD) said: “Restrictions on the supply of medication relevant to supply are a global problem that cannot be solved at the state level.” However, the extensive production of well-known pharmaceutical companies in Rhineland-Palatinate in Ingelheim and Ludwigshafen shows that regional pharmaceutical production is possible in Germany.
There is no point in relocating quality assurance and the production of pharmaceuticals to Asia if these processes could be designed at least as well – or even much better – on site, the minister said. She also sees pharmaceutical companies as being obliged to “comprehensively fulfill their tasks of supplying needs”.
Most recently, the Federal Association of German Pharmacists’ Associations (ABDA) complained about supply bottlenecks for common medicines in Germany. These are becoming increasingly common, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find replacement medication for patients. The association identifies the globalized market as one reason for the bottlenecks.
Nikolaus has a similar view. Much of the pharmaceutical production takes place, for example, in Asia, she said. Boehringer itself mainly produces in Europe, mostly in Germany, and therefore has no problems. “However, there are supply bottlenecks on the German pharmaceutical market as a whole.” It is problematic if active ingredients are only produced by a few producers. If one of them ceases to exist, a whole series of pharmaceutical companies can no longer manufacture a drug. An example from the recent past was the lack of the active ingredient valsartan.
Nikolaus also referred to the import promotion clause in the law for more security in the supply of medicines. This also indirectly leads to more parallel imports. Roughly speaking, companies that are independent of manufacturers acquire medicines abroad that are actually intended for the market there and import them to Germany, for example. This could also lead to bottlenecks, said Nikolaus. “Political corrections could improve the supply of medicines to Germans.”
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