The Association of Paediatricians has warned of renewed supply bottlenecks for medicines in the cold season.
“It is to be feared that if there are high waves of infection like last year, parents will have to walk halfway through the city to get fever syrup or antibiotics,” said the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ), Thomas Fischbach, who ” New Osnabrück newspaper”. The law against these bottlenecks goes in the right direction, “but will definitely not help us through this winter and may also fall short in the long run,” he said.
Drug bottlenecks also partially paralyzed the practices because employees had to go through several pharmacies on the phone to find the drugs they needed, Fischbach told the newspaper. “We are therefore looking forward to autumn and winter with concern.”
A law passed in July makes stocks of several months’ quantity for frequently used medicines mandatory. Price rules are to be relaxed so that deliveries to Germany are more worthwhile for manufacturers.
Even with the reform, it is “not attractive enough for pharmaceutical companies to produce and sell drugs in Germany, for example because of the prescribed fixed prices,” said Fischbach. “These are commercial enterprises that earn more abroad.”
