03/01/2023 4:17 pm (act. 03/01/2023 04:17 pm)
Health spokesperson Josef Smolle: ” ©APA/Canva
The debate over drug supply continues: according to the Federal Office for Health Care Safety (BASG), more than 540 drugs are either unavailable or available only to a limited extent.
Medical Association vice president Harald Mayer criticized manufacturing’s reliance on Asia in the morning newspaper Ö1. Andreas Windischbauer, president of the Association of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (Phago), sees a solution in a “crisis field”.
Crisis Camp for Medicines
“We need a crisis camp for very important medicines because problems can always arise in global supply chains,” said Windischbauer. Much can only happen at European level, but in this area Austria itself must create a reserve.
“We are still dependent on raw materials from a number of third countries and have not been able to establish or attempt to establish a reasonable supply of medical devices across the EU or, if you like, along with the US, Great Britain etc.”, criticized Mayer. Bringing production to Europe “is a long-term process,” says Windischbauer. In addition, the most common drugs, in particular, are extremely low priced – “70 percent of drugs cost less than six euros”. At this level, “no production in Europe is possible”.
ÖVP wants to raise prices
The Ministry of Health referred to the Ö1-Mittagsjournal about the already existing ban on the sale of restricted medicines abroad. A statement read: “In order to better deal with international delivery bottlenecks, Austria is working intensively together at EU level to find solutions and make Europe more independent as a place in terms of pharmaceuticals. The corona pandemic has already shown how important a strong health union is and how it can effectively overcome challenges.”
For the ÖVP, higher drug prices are a possible solution for making sales in Austria more attractive for manufacturers. Health spokesman Josef Smolle on the radio: “It would be conceivable to take into account the value creation that happens in Europe, the production in Europe, when pricing.” It is also “quite possible that it will cost a little more”.
FPÖ health spokesman Gerhard Kaniak told Ö1: “One measure that could be implemented relatively quickly would be to strengthen the distribution chain, i.e. the pharmaceutical wholesale trade, but also pharmacies in the sense that Cost pressure is less strong in this area as well, so critical drug storage has already been taking place in the country for a longer period of time.” Gerald Loacker of NEOS championed European cooperation in the purchase, following the example of the acquisition of corona vaccines.
SPÖ criticizes ÖVP and FPÖ
The SPÖ wants to bring drug production back to Austria and Europe, financed by a €3 billion fund, according to Mittagsjournal. Health spokesman Philip Kucher also calls for a national crisis camp with an emergency stockpile of drugs and medical supplies set out. He criticized demands for higher prices: it cannot be that patients “are asked to pay for the government’s inaction in the midst of the inflationary wave”, he told the ÖVP in a broadcast. “The FPÖ joining this once again exposes the Freedom Party as a rich party.”
A large number of drugs have also been reported to BASG as unavailable in recent years: in 2020 there were almost 1,102 in total, almost 800 in 2021 and almost 1,260 in 2022, according to the morning newspaper Ö1.