Published: Less than 20 min ago
The number of medicines that ran out, and were therefore notified as backlogs, increased significantly last year. According to the Swedish Medicines Agency, the increase was 54 percent compared to 2021.
The fact that some medicines run out is usually due to high demand and problems in manufacturing, so that the producer cannot supply the volumes needed.
“Given the continued concern in the outside world, we unfortunately do not believe that the number of residual notifications will decrease during 2023”, comments unit manager Johan Andersson at the Medical Products Agency in a press release.
In 2022, 1,615 medicine packages were reported as remaining, which was 54 percent more than in 2021 and slightly more than in 2020.
The proportion of remaining reported pharmaceutical packaging is small in relation to the total supply (3.8 per cent). The remaining notifications can also in most cases be resolved by patients and pharmacy customers receiving interchangeable alternatives. But the lack of certain medicines creates anxiety for patients and extra work for pharmacy and healthcare staff.