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Life-threatening delivery bottlenecks with important cancer drug
In Germany, supply bottlenecks are currently being experienced in the important cancer drug melphalan. This endangers the treatment of patients. Wholesalers would sometimes demand more than 25 times the normal price. Health experts demand legal regulations to prevent such situations in the future.
Delivery bottlenecks could lead to avoidable deaths
Delivery bottlenecks in the important cancer drug Melphalan are currently jeopardizing the care of patients in Germany. The remedy is used, among other things, for multiple myeloma (plasmocytoma), a malignant disease of the bone marrow. According to the medical profession, it is needed to prepare a stem cell transplant, which can often stop cancer for a long time. As the cancer specialist Günther Wiedemann from Ravensburg told the news magazine "Der Spiegel", the current shortage could lead to avoidable deaths. Sometimes life-saving interventions have to be postponed indefinitely according to the Drug Commission of the German Medical Association (AkdÄ).
Cancer medicines may not be sufficiently stored. Image: grafikplusfoto - fotolia Dealers demand partly 25 times the price
The Federal Ministry of Health informed, citing the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), that Melphalan will soon be available to doctors and patients. The Ministry has sought contact with the manufacturer. A ministry spokeswoman told the German press agency that first deliveries will be possible next week. For Melphalan, which dates back to the 1950s, patent protection expired. According to the "Spiegel" report, a treatment cycle costs less than 2,000 euros. The production is therefore hardly worthwhile. According to the information, the few wholesalers who still have supplies sometimes demand more than 25 times the normal price due to the supply shortage. Last year, around 350,000 defined daily doses were needed nationwide.
Ensure availability of medicines
In addition to Melphalan, however, there may be supply bottlenecks in many other medicines as soon as patent protection has expired. AkdÄ, together with the Association of German Hospital Pharmacists (ADKA), issued a communication demanding that legislators develop measures to ensure the availability of medicines. The two organizations complained that they had repeatedly referred to the problem in the past. "The example of Melphalan shows once again that without further legal regulations it is not possible to avoid such bottlenecks in the supply of medicines in the future."
Expired patent protection and low inventories
The German Foundation for Patient Protection called for a roundtable with representatives of the Federal Ministry of Health, the BfArM and the pharmaceutical industry in order to prevent such bottlenecks in the future. "Otherwise, we will continue to follow suit in the future," said the foundation's board, Eugen Brysch, to the news agency dpa. But not only the expired patent protection can lead to the fact that medicines - temporarily - are not available. When the German Hospital Association (DKG) reported supply shortages of medicines in clinics last year, the pharmaceutical manufacturers had cited the timely production in Asia and low inventories as the reason for the bottlenecks. At that time, too, politicians were called to act. (Ad)