Europe : Paediatricians warn of shortage of children’s medicines

In an open letter to EU health ministers on 29 April 2023, paediatricians from all countries sounded the alarm about the shortage of medicines for children.

Divine KANANYET/la Presse

The “Children’s Doctors” are calling for a quick, reliable and sustainable solution to this shortage.
The letter stresses the need for antibiotics, painkillers, fever and asthma medicines, as well as vaccines. “We consider it the responsibility of policy makers to ensure sufficient production and supply of important medicines for basic paediatric care in Europe,”
they wrote, according to the German version of the letter translated by AFP. Furthermore, “It is urgent to find a rapid, reliable
and sustainable solution”, the paediatricians write in the letter addressed to the health ministers of Germany, France, South Tyrol (Italy), Austria and Switzerland.
In France, over the past few months, stocks of several medicines
have been under pressure. Several antibiotics, including amoxicillin, which is widely prescribed
for children, were in short supply. In early February, the Minister of Health announced a plan to prevent future crises. In particular, the government stated
that it would authorise price increases for certain essential generics to encourage manufacturers
to continue production. As a reminder, in order to avoid stock-outs in the coming years, the French government intends to draw up a list of “essential medicines”, for which a constant supply must be ensured. “We have to determine which are the essential medicines, the critical medicines, those that no one can do without,” explained the minister,
citing the example of the United States, which has a list containing 173 references.
Government plan
“We are in the process of finalising
this list for May with all the medical specialities,” he added. Once this list is established, the second stage of the government’s
plan will be to “define the manufacturing points of the drug, from the active ingredient to the bottling or tabletting, in order to control the entire production
chain”, according to the Health Minister. This is to ensure that these essential medicines will always be available.