The French national health authority is calling for EU countries to make joint purchases of drugs to address possible future shortages across the 27 Member States.
The call came in a Senate hearing into drug shortages with the suggestion that the EU’s recently established health emergency response agency (HERA) could bulk purchase medicines in advance of likely increased demand.
The problem of drug shortages is not specific to France but a general problem across the EU. For example, Italy’s Medicines Agency reports a shortage of over 3,000 medicines of which 554 are out of stock.
The call is backed by the Standing Committee of European Doctors who wish to see the European Union take “urgent action”.