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Pharmacies are absorbing the burden of this crisis in a silent but increasing manner. Today, a pharmacist spends an average of 12 hours a week managing stock-outs: finding alternatives, contacting prescribing doctors, supporting patients, preventing errors and dealing with administrative formalities. That's twice as much as five years ago.
81% of countries report an increase in administrative burdens and economic losses linked to this additional work, which is neither recognized nor remunerated.
Resilience cannot rely on front-line professionals compensating for systemic failures.
The causes are multiple and intertwined. Europe is heavily dependent on non-EU countries, particularly China and India, for the production of active ingredients and pharmaceutical raw materials. Any disruption to global supply chains has an immediate impact on the availability of medicines.
Added to this is an economic problem: production costs have risen (energy, transport), but the selling prices of many generic medicines remain stuck, or are even falling. Producing certain essential medicines has simply become unprofitable, and some laboratories are abandoning them.
There's also the phenomenon of parallel trade: medicines are bought where they cost less - as in Italy - then resold on markets where prices are higher, diverting stocks from the national market.
Priorities include strengthening European production of essential medicines, setting up early warning systems capable of anticipating shortages, extending the legal role of pharmacists in managing therapeutic substitutions (currently possible in only 15% of countries), and financially recognizing the additional work already undertaken by pharmacies.
In other words, drug shortages are not a technical problem to be delegated to pharmaceutical companies alone. It's an issue of public health, fairness and collective confidence in the healthcare system. As such, it needs to be tackled, urgently and within the framework of European coordination.
(©GreenMe.it 2026 / Managing Editor: Selma Keshkire - The Press Junction / Picture: ©Unsplash)