2023-06-02 04:00:00
It was via the orange Alert Us button that Christian (assumed name) contacted us to tell us about a problem he was having with one of his medications. For several years, he has been suffering from various nerves in his body, which sometimes prevents him from moving. Only, the morphine he takes to relieve the pain is out of stock. A situation that has happened before. Indeed, a year ago, Patrick contacted us to tell us about the same problem involving the same drug. How is such a situation possible?
“You come to want to tear your muscles so much they are contracted“. These words are those of Christian, 41 years old. A victim of polyneuropathy (a disease which affects the nerves located between the spinal cord and the muscles of the limbs) for ten years, Christian began to take morphine in order to to push through the pain that was getting bigger and bigger.”Without going into details, my immune system destroys my peripheral nervous system. I have the nerves that are destroyed and it forms a polyneuropathy (…) which leads to neuralgia, so pain that is daily and constant“, he testifies.
A problematic shortage
With a disease that has become progressive over the years, Christian was forced to take Oxynorm, a powerful morphine that acts very quickly against pain of this type. Problem, it has been several months since this drug is no longer available in Belgium, as shown by the “PharmaStatut” site, which lists the treatments available here.
It is anxiety-provoking to know that there are no more
Inevitably, no longer having access to this powerful morphine poses serious problems for Christian. “It is anxiety-provoking to know that there are no more“, he explains. Luckily, he began a withdrawal from the drug. “I think that if I hadn’t started this withdrawal and I was like six months ago, with fairly high dosages, I think I could have become quite violent. (…) Thank goodness I’m in a shutdown process so I’m not too anxious about it anymore“, specifies Christian.
A situation that has not changed in a year
In January 2022, Patrick also contacted us via the orange Alert Us button. Following back operations carried out between 2011 and 2014, this 50-year-old still felt pain and was prescribed OxyNorm Instant 20mg. Unfortunately, this analgesic had fallen out of stock from October 2021. Patrick’s doctor had then recommended Oxicrodon 20 mg, a drug that our witness found less effective, because it acts in prolonged release (the effects are felt after several hours, unlike OxyNorm which soothes the pain in 20 minutes).
The shortage of OxyNorm was supposed to last until the end of December 2021, but it persisted in the first weeks of 2022. Rebelote a year later: OxyNorm is no longer available again.
Everything got more complicated…
According to Sandrine Daoud, spokesperson for the office of the Minister of Health, Frank Vandenbroucke, this can be explained, among other things, by the pandemic and the conflict affecting Europe: “The impact of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine on the import of medicines into Belgium has been great, as these crises affect our supply of raw materials“, she explains.
David Gering, communication director at PharmaBe (general association of the pharmaceutical industry), goes in the same direction: “Indeed, these crises have had an influence on the production and distribution of medicines. Everything got more complicated…“.
However, Sandrine Daoud is reassuring: “To tackle this dependency in the future, Frank Vandenbroucke presented an action plan to the European Commission last month, which was co-signed by 19 member states.“.
Global crises, local scarcity
Paradoxically, even if these disturbances reach Europe and the world, the Belgians pay the broken pots. Indeed, after having been alerted by Cécile, she also dependent on OxyNorm in the face of pain, we noticed that this shortage did not affect all countries and that our French neighbors did not suffer from it like our fellow citizens. An edifying observation.
Christian, Patrick and Cécile can just be patient and turn to other drugs, until the situation surrounding OxyNorm returns to normal during this summer.
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