In recent months there have been several news reports about the lack of medicines in Portugal. A reality that worries the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), which is why it has decided today to table a draft resolution in the Assembly of the Republic on the “strengthening of the capacity and powers of the National Medicines Laboratory”, so that the discussion of the topic is planned plenary.
According to the portrait presented by the PCP in this project, 1785 interruptions of presentations were recorded in 2021, corresponding to 863 medicines and 474 active substances. Of the total number of fractures, 239 had a medium impact, i.e. they corresponded to medicines with limited or insufficient therapeutic alternatives, but 46 were classified as having a high impact on citizens’ health, in the case of medicines with no therapeutic alternatives. alternatively sold on the Portuguese market.
The problems associated with production appear to be “those largely responsible for situations of unavailability of medicines,” says the Communists’ document, which also points out that between 2020 and 2021, pharmaceutical production will be down by 6.6% decreased, imports of pharmaceuticals increased by 10.6% and exports decreased by 1.0%.
On the other hand, the communists explain, the number of medicines with marketing authorization fell in 2020 to values close to those recorded in 2015, while the amount spent per capita on medicines in 2021 increased by 6% increased compared to the values recorded in 2020 and reached about 434 euros. The average unit price of medicines has also been increasing since 2014 and between 2021 and 2020 this increase was 2.6%, with an average unit price of 11.55 euros, the PCP states in the document, as this reflects Portugal’s dependency situation in this area.
Given this picture, “it is important to improve the production capacity of the National Medicines Laboratory created in response to the PCP’s proposal, which will allow new responses to be found to ensure the provision of medicines as needed”, justifies the design solution.
The communists recall that in 2021, when the new National Drug Laboratory was inaugurated, it was said that this institution would allow “to increase national production capacity in the drug sector, with the aim of ensuring the strategic production of essential medicines and increasing the field of action of the Military Laboratory, enabling it “to respond not only to the needs of the armed forces, but also to those of the civilians”.
Nearly 70 different formulations are currently produced at LNM, as well as some “orphan drugs” and drugs that are no longer of interest to the pharmaceutical industry, such as isoniazid for the treatment of tuberculosis. Responding to emerging needs in terms of drug manufacturing and ensuring their availability when needed includes strengthening the manufacturing capacity of the National Drug Laboratory, which as a public entity enables this service-oriented manufacturing for the public and users’ needs, not for profit.
For this reason, taking into account the recorded evolution in terms of drug availability management, situation of stock of the strategic reserve and the needs of the users, the PCP advocates that INFARMED draw up a list of drugs for which it is a priority to increase their national production and that human resources, technicians and facilities associated with the LNM so that it will be endowed with the necessary capacity to produce the most commonly used medicines and those in which situations of breakage or supply interruptions have occurred.
Source: DN
