Supply problems and Chinese lockdowns make medicines scarce in Vienna. Medicines, such as special painkillers, are already sold out. Experts argue for more local production.
Bavarian pharmacies sounded the alarm over the summer – medicines are becoming scarce in their German neighbours. In many places the pharmacists already mix the ointments and medicines themselves. But some painkillers, antihypertensives or anticonvulsants are already scarce. In Austria this has not been a problem so far.
A spokesperson in the summer: “It sometimes happens that a taste of a children’s medicine is not available. Then there is only strawberry instead of orange. But with 15,000 approved medicines, we can usually find a replacement.” But lately the situation has worsened.
Dependence on China and India a problem
The problem: dependence on low-wage countries. An expert puts it in a nutshell: “If someone in China coughs three times, an entire city of millions is immediately hermetically sealed. If there is a factory in the province that makes a popular drug or an important component, drugs quickly become scarce.” in China and India.
This makes Europe very dependent. The problem can only be solved at a pan-European political level. If a medicine cannot be delivered, pharmacists do everything they can to help and ensure that the population is supplied with medicines at all times,” said Raimund Podroschko, Vice-President of the Chamber of Pharmacists.
Learned nothing from the disaster with the protective mask
As with Germany’s neighbors, the call for a European solution is getting louder. The tenor: “The production has to be taken back into our own hands.”
Frankly, alarm bells should have ringed at the start of the pandemic when there was a shortage of safety equipment or protective masks. However, politics does not stand still. Pharmaceutical companies must report bottlenecks in medicines or individual raw materials to the Federal Office for Health Care Safety.
The export of these products will then be banned immediately and goods may no longer be exported from Austria within the European Union. But if the components or drugs don’t come to Europe at all, it doesn’t matter.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
