The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published recommendations to increase communication and planning efforts in a bid stop the current medicine shortages becoming even worse.
Within the , published by an EMA special task force, are 10 recommendations of best practices that 鈥渕arketing authorisation holders, wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers can consider adopting to ensure continuity of medicinal product supply and reduce the impact of shortages鈥�.
Amongst the recommendations are calls for informing national competent authorities of impending shortages, creating shortage prevention protocols, designing multinational supply chains to increase resilience, and communication lines between stakeholders and supply chains.
The EMA set up a task force in 2016 in light of issues concerning medicine availability and supply chain. The group has been looking into solutions for improving the continuity of supply of human and veterinary medicines across Europe.
There have long been concerns about the impact that supply problems can have on patients. The Covid-19 pandemic worsened availability further 鈥� a by the 天美传媒app Group of the European Union, which represents community pharmacists, found that 100% of responding countries experienced medicine shortages. There has also been a concurrent proliferation in the number of as patients turn to the internet to acquire medicine.
The guidance adds to a aimed at patient and healthcare professional organisations as EMA tackles the instability of medicine supplies.
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By GlobalData鈥淪hortages can lead to medicine rationing and delay in critical treatments, with a significant impact on patient care. In addition, patients may need to use less effective alternatives and face an increased risk of medication errors. Ensuring the availability of authorised medicines in the European Union is a key priority for EMA and the European medicines regulatory network,鈥� EMA said in a statement.
