Antibiotics exchanged by neighbors, expired medicines at the flea market: a proposal by the German Medical Association to combat the shortage of medicines met with unanimous rejection. Pharmacists and panel doctors shake their heads and call for Health Minister Lauterbach.
The Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA) has strongly rejected the proposal of the German Medical Association for the neighborly exchange of expired medicines. "This is how you drive people into dangerous drug intake, but does not solve any supply bottlenecks," said ABDA President Overwiening in Berlin. The ABDA President sharply rejected the fact that pharmacies had contributed to the bottlenecks through hamsters, as some politicians suspected: “We help to solve the bottlenecks, we don’t produce them. Politicians have long since expressed tangible thanks for this effort overdue."
"Drugs belong in pharmacies, not on the flea market - certainly not expired drugs," said the President of the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists, Thomas Benkert. He was shocked by such a public proposal.
Medical Association President Klaus Reinhardt suggested at the weekend that anyone who is healthy should give medicines that are available at home to the sick. "We need something like flea markets for medicines in the neighborhood," he told Berlin's Tagesspiegel. Medicines whose expiry date has already expired a few months could also be considered for such drug flea markets. In an emergency, numerous drugs could still be used safely.
The Federal Ministry of Health also rejected it. The proposal by the German Medical Association is "not aimed at legal action," said a spokeswoman. "It is much more the task of the federal government to set the framework for the drug market in such a way that the supply of drugs is secured at all times." Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has already announced that before Christmas he will present the key points for a drug law to overcome drug supply bottlenecks and also to diversify supply chains. "The schedule will remain," said the SPD-led Ministry of Health.
The panel doctors demanded direct government intervention because of the delivery bottlenecks. "Now the Federal Ministry of Health is asked to procure the missing medicines as quickly as possible," said the CEO of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), Andreas Gassen. Special regulations and immediate measures are needed, such as at the beginning of the corona pandemic, when materials such as masks and protective clothing that were scarce on the international market had to be brought to Germany. There is "a real crisis situation". The panel doctors also objected to exchanging or giving away medicines to neighbors or friends.
