National News

Great medicine shortage in the Netherlands (part 2)

Last December, InnoGeneric (a big Dutch manufacturer of generic drugs) went bankrupt. This could have led to big drug shortages, the minister of Health warned the Dutch parliament. In the Netherlands, there are already problems regarding drug shortages due to the national drug reimbursement policies, so the loss of this manufacturer would have meant even bigger shortages and accompanying other issues arising. Fortunately, the manufacturer was last-minute bought up by a raw drug material supplier with some financial aid from the state. Therefore, the drug producer has been relaunched, but it will be in a reduced manner as fewer drugs are likely to be produced.

From January 1st, 2023, the safety stock regulation will be used, which obliges manufacturers to keep stock for two and a half months. This is meant to catch half of the medicine shortages. The medicine shortages are also on the agenda for the European Commission, which will hopefully also aid the worldwide problem. Although this may seem to be a solution to the problem, the underlying issue will not be resolved by it. Therefore, fierce debate on this matter can still be expected in the future.

This piece is written by the committee for pharmaceutical policy from K.N.P.S.V. The Netherlands