Breakthrough networking and sharing responsibilities to cope with the Medicines Shortages challenge
The problems created by supply shortages of medicines have been widely reported by healthcare professionals and patients over recent years, and acknowledged by the European Medicines Agency and European Commission. The cited causes are multifaceted ranging from production disruptions, natural disasters, discontinuations, difficulties created by various restrictive and disincentive legal, trade and pricing frameworks, unfavorable decision making in medicines production and trade, insufficient stocks, as well as conflicts of interest of stakeholders. COST Action CA15105 - European Medicines Shortages Research Network - addressing supply problems to patients - is the platform which joins together all stakeholders and particular interests along the supply chain.
A special session of the Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists led by Prof. Dr. Helena Jenzer will be held on March 22, 2017. Prof. Dr. David Schwartz will present insights from the Social Intelligence Lab's Emergency Response Community Project. The ERC project addresses micro-shortages caused when a patient - who is the final link in the supply chain - experiences an emergency event but is not in possession of their prescribed medication.
Prof. Dr. Isabelle Huys will discuss how to define a drug shortage: from the perspectives of stakeholders; Public health perspective on drug shortages, systemic solutions and organizational frameworks aimed to prevent or mitigate this problem will be presented by Prof. Dr. Tomasz Bochenek. Elfi de Weerdt will present findings regarding estimated clinical impact of drug shortages and Jane Nicholson will speak about product shortages due to distribution problems.
Sourcing doses during out-of-hospital single person emergencies: Opportunities and Challenges
Robust optimisation and technical-economic estimators for pharmaceutical supply chains will be discussed by Prof. Dr. Joao Luis de Miranda.
The final objective of the Research Network is to stimulate constructive agreement between all participating stakeholders and to reveal any restrictive legal and economic frameworks, erroneous incentives in the supply chain, conflicts of interest, and problematic cost-benefit ratios that induce or exacerbate shortages. For more information see the: EAHP Congress Portal