The World Health Organization warns that drug shortages could become a systemic problem affecting the health of millions of patients and impacting healthcare systems in Europe and North America. This is stated in a global WHO study, writes UNN.
What did the scientists find?
The World Health Organization has called drug shortages a global health problem requiring urgent action, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) maintains a catalog of drug shortages, reports Medical Xpress.
It is noted that a research group from the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMS) at the University of Oxford, in collaboration with other global institutions, analyzed real-world health data from 52 large databases covering over 600 million people. They looked at the use of 57 drugs, including antibiotics, cancer drugs, and treatments for chronic diseases.
The study showed that some problems affected almost all countries, differing only in intensity, and led to changes in drug use and doctors prescribing less common analogues.
“Because drug supply chains are global, shortages in one country often spill over into others. The impact on patient health can be devastating. Our use of large-scale health data can help healthcare professionals identify problems faster, manage smart demand forecasting policies, encourage safe and effective alternatives, strengthen supply chains, and prioritize vulnerable patients when shortages occur,”
Drug shortages are a complex global problem that can cause significant harm to patients. When vital medicines are unavailable, patients' health is at risk due to delayed treatment initiation, ineffective treatment, treatment failure, or even complete loss of access to medicines. This can lead to worsening diseases, complications, or increased healthcare costs.
Ukraine's experience
Unfortunately, Ukraine is no exception; we also periodically receive reports of shortages of certain drugs for the treatment of, for example, some types of cancer or rare genetic diseases. But along with this, Ukrainian patients face a number of other problems related to medicines. Despite the fact that there is no global shortage of drugs in Ukraine, as evidenced by a sociological study by Gradus Research, Ukrainians are very concerned about the rising prices of medicines - 90% of the target audience consider the rising prices of medicines a significant problem. At the same time, most respondents (79%) noted that they are forced to save money to buy the necessary medicines. The main place for purchasing medicines is stationary pharmacies (65%).
Such data indicate problems with the accessibility of treatment in Ukraine. To improve the situation, the authorities introduced a number of changes in the regulation of the pharmaceutical market. In practice, they turned out to be one-sided, as they concerned exclusively pharmacies and distributors and did not concern drug manufacturers, who form about 72% of the drug's cost.
For example, from March 1, a ban was introduced on concluding marketing agreements between pharmacies and manufacturers, meaning that the promotion of specific drugs for money was prohibited. Previously, as representatives of pharmacy chains explain, income from so-called marketing allowed pharmacies to introduce various social support programs for the most vulnerable patients, as well as to open unprofitable points in remote and frontline areas.
As one of the largest drug manufacturers claimed, it was precisely because of marketing that drug prices were so expensive. However, even after six months of this ban, drug prices did not fall even by the promised 30%. So high prices remain a problematic issue for the vast majority of Ukrainians.
In addition, the new legislation obliges pharmacies to have the cheapest drug on the market in their assortment and to offer it to the patient first, and in case of refusal, to move on to offering more expensive analogues available on the shelves. The decrease in the solvency of the population and new licensing rules together led to a narrowing of the assortment. After all, consumers choose cheaper drugs.
Patients, however, welcomed this change, noting that now, when the pharmacist first offers the cheapest analogue of the drug, it is possible to get the necessary treatment.
However, not everyone liked this norm. One of the factories producing the most popular drugs in Ukraine has already announced that it was forced to stop production of medicines several times due to overcrowded warehouses. This situation predictably arose because these drugs are not the cheapest on the market. Pharmacists, adhering to licensing requirements, offer the cheapest analogues, and patients buy them. Therefore, purchases of the cheapest drugs predictably increased, while those in the higher price segment decreased.
In this situation, it is consumer demand for cheaper drugs that shapes supply, and those manufacturers who understood this and lowered prices maintain their positions in the market. And those who continue to keep their drugs at a high cost lose popularity and are already facing a situation where warehouses are overflowing with drugs because they are being bought less.
In conclusion, it is important that the market reformatting and changes in the rules of the game do not worsen the situation with drug accessibility for Ukrainians - because both the availability of drugs in pharmacies, their prices, and physical accessibility are all about the ability to receive timely and quality treatment.