Supply bottlenecks, especially for children's medicines, have been a problem since last summer, and pharmacies sometimes have to find replacements themselves.
In December it seemed to intensify: "The shortage of medicines will worsen dramatically - China is stopping exports," said the Saarland Chamber of Pharmacists.
China has decided to stop exporting paracetamol and ibuprofen in particular, said President Manfred Saar, referring to a media report from France that referred to the pandemic-related emergency in China and the increased use of medicines there.
Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup
Editor in the department "Nature and Science".
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For many years, warnings about dependency on a single country "were conveniently pushed aside by politicians and, in particular, by the statutory health insurance companies as scaremongering and lobbying," said Saar.
“It is impossible to say how long the shortage of medicines, which is now even worsening, will continue.
However, the experiences from the past Corona years give rise to fears that China will have such a need for medicines for months that an improvement in Germany is not to be expected.”
Specialist and public media took up the topic.
But as the pharmaceutical association Pro Generika now explains when asked, nothing has become known about an export stop among its member companies: Companies that source from China “have received everything within normal limits so far,” explains a spokeswoman, explaining that there are no impairments.
In any case, most of the funds do not come from China, but from India.