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ARCHIVED - Spanish pharmacies prepare for a serious allergy medication shortage this spring
There are already supply problems with more than 740 different drugs in Spain
For several months now the global supply of virtually every kind of medication has been running low, and the recent second wave of the flu epidemic in Spain has left pharmacies scrambling to source several of the most common drugs. Now, with spring just around the corner, the industry is struggling to get hold of allergy medications.
“It’s something that is getting out of hand,” one pharmacist remarked.
The chain of obstacles lies mainly at the international level: on the one hand, many of the raw materials needed to manufacture the drugs come from outside the EU, from the likes of China and India, and these aren’t as forthcoming as before. Consequently, the production is outsourced but this pushes up the costs significantly, so chemists stop ordering these overpriced meds.
For these reasons, many in the business have predicted that anti-allergy drugs like antihistamines and decongestants will become scarce by spring.
According to the Drug Information Centre of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (CIMA-AEMPS), there are currently supply problems with more than 740 different medications.
"Several weeks before the arrival of spring, the thousands of pharmacies that use the LUDA tool have already started to detect problems in the supply of various allergy medicines, which is a good indicator of how they are doing.”
The LUDA system keeps track of drug stocks in pharmacies and if one establishments runs out of a particular treatment, they can use the tool to direct the patient to the nearest alternative store.
The company foresees serious supply problems with the following drugs in the coming weeks:
- Budesonide Pulmictan: used to prevent shortness of breath, chest tightness, wheezing and coughing caused by asthma.
- Cetirizine Teva 1mg/ml Oral Solution EFG: an anti-allergy medicine indicated in adults and children from 2 years of age.
- Reactine Cetirizine / Pseudoephedrine 5mg/120mg tablets: a medication that acts as an anti-allergy and nasal decongestant.
- Desloratadine Normon and Desloratadine Sandoz: an antihistamine drug used to treat allergies like hay fever.
- Fexofenadine: used to relieve the symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever), including runny nose and sneezing.
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