Flu drugs, asthma sprays for children and, above all, broad-spectrum antibiotics are currently either not available at all or in small quantities. According to the President of the Vienna Chamber of Pharmacists, Philipp Saiko, 486 drugs are currently affected. Even in the late evening hours, one calls the medical profession and advises on which substitute medication one can switch to and how quotas can be optimally used. The situation is still under control, says Saiko.
The reasons for the delivery bottlenecks: “On the one hand, there are problems with the production of active ingredients. And we are completely dependent on the supply chains from Asia, because very many of these products are no longer produced in Europe,” explains Andreas Windischbauer, President of the Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers.
Bottleneck in antibiotics
In addition to flu cases and CoV, many are currently suffering from bacterial infections. However, there is currently a shortage of antibiotics in pharmacies.
Try to get raw materials
The consequence of the shortage is a temporary quota. “In the case of antibiotics, we are currently allocating the products to the pharmacies. That means we try that every pharmacy gets something and
that we don’t get rid of everything today, but that we are still able to deliver tomorrow or during the Christmas period.” That is of course an extremely unpleasant situation, according to Windischbauer.
One is in conversation with all pharmaceutical manufacturers, “whether we can still sell goods for Austria or whether we might get raw materials that the pharmacies can use to produce medicines.” If the wave of illnesses passed, the situation would of course relax. In any case, the EU wants to bring antibiotic production back to Europe in the longer term.
“More pneumonia than ever before”
There is currently no relaxation in sight in the practice of Naghme Kamaleyan-Schmied in Floridsdorf. Up to 400 patients are currently cared for here every day. “We have more pneumonia than ever before,” says the general practitioner, who is also the deputy head of the curia for resident doctors in the Vienna Medical Association.
The bottlenecks in many medicines are “a catastrophe. The patients are poor, we are poor,” says Kamaleyan-Schmied. Because it means a lot of extra work. “I call the pharmacy for hours every day to know which pharmacy has what, so that my patients can get the best possible care
are taken care of.” At the moment, this is “just manageable,” says the doctor.