“One in 10 Medicines Cannot Be Found”

“SHORT-TERM DRUG ABSENCE IS NORMAL”

Short-term drug absencesBursa Chamber of Pharmacists President Adnan Erakın stated that the shortage of medicines is normal and said, "It is normal to experience medicine shortages from time to time, especially at the end of the year, when the agreements between pharmaceutical companies and warehouses are renewed, or during the periods when they are under maintenance, and even for a very short time in December. We see this every year. Such short-term absences may occur due to lack of raw materials or packaging.

New drug in December 2023 price decree It was published. This decree was published on the 16th of December, but its implementation began on the 25th of December. A gap of 9 days was left in between. This period, of course, caused serious problems in pharmacies and pharmaceutical warehouses. "The drug shortages experienced before have become a little deeper in this period." he said.

“THE FIRST REASON FOR MEDICINE SHORTAGES IS 'DRUG PRICING DECISION'”

Stating that there are many reasons for drug shortages, Bursa Chamber of Pharmacists President Adnan Erakın said, “We can list many reasons for drug shortages, but the main reason is the 'Drug Price Decree', which is currently the drug pricing practice in Turkey. With this, drug prices are determined and currently the exchange rate determined in the application is 17.55 TL in euros, but when we look at the real exchange rate, it is around 35 liras. Here the pricing is almost half compared to the real exchange rate. "This is the primary reason for drug shortages." said.

“PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES ARE WITHDRAWING FROM TURKEY”

Bursa Chamber of Pharmacists President Adnan Erakın said that the pricing procedure may cause foreign pharmaceutical companies to withdraw from the foreign market and continued his words as follows:

“We hear about such withdrawals. some few companyWe heard that it was withdrawn. But this mostly happens at the level of drugs. In other words, the companies stated that they would not send some of their medicines. We encounter these. "Although they have not withdrawn completely, they are withdrawing some of their medications, even critical medications, in Turkey."

DOMESTIC PRODUCTION IS REQUIRED

Noting that domestic production should be increased in order to prevent drug shortages, Bursa Chamber of Pharmacists President Adnan Erakın said, “I definitely agree with domestic production. While we are talking about drug shortages, we end with this issue. Because, of course, we are one of the foreign-dependent countries in pharmaceutical production. Here, it is very important that we primarily support the local pharmaceutical industry. Increasing the local rate, equivalent drugs are seen by our people because sometimes there may be a reaction to equivalent drugs. At this point, we think it is very important to strengthen the domestic pharmaceutical industry as a priority. We see it as very important to increase the rate of localization in pharmaceuticals.

The important thing here is the production of the molecule. New molecules need to be produced and these issues need to be developed through R&D studies. In this regard, there are molecules produced by multinational companies according to their possibilities, and they also contain a certain period of time. For example, it has the direct production right of that drug within 10 years. After 10 years, these licenses become anonymous, meaning they can be produced by other companies. At these points, the production of important molecules should be improved, especially by improving Turkey's R&D studies.

“We stand behind supporting the local pharmaceutical industry.” he said.

“THERE IS NOT ONE IN EVERY 10 MEDICINE”

Explaining the drug shortage rate, Bursa Chamber of Pharmacists President Adnan Erakın used the following statements:

“The critical period in the absence of medicine has now been exceeded. In December, the price of drugs was increased by 25 percent in the 'Drug Price Decree' in the market. As a result, we see decreases in drug shortages in pharmacies and warehouses. For example, the rate of drug shortages was around 22 percent in December, and this figure decreased to 2024 percent in January 17. As of this month, our poverty rate dropped to 9.7 percent. We feel this relief these days. This rate means that one in every 10 drugs is missing. Of course, there is a shortage of antibiotics in warehouses, and this situation continues. Antibiotics arrive and are immediately distributed to pharmacies. Even though it is in sequential numbers, there has been a problem in its supply to some extent. Because we saw that there was a 22 percent absence rate in December. This meant that one in 5 antibiotic drugs disappeared, and this is a very serious figure. Also, if there is a drug that is equivalent to a drug, you can give it, there is no problem in that, but the drug that does not have an equivalent becomes a very difficult situation for patients. We hope that our people's approach, especially regarding equivalent drugs, will always be acceptable. Because equivalent drugs are really products whose formula has been proven by tests. We want everyone to be comfortable in this regard, and I recommend that non-pharmaceutical products should be obtained from pharmacies as much as possible.”