Pharmacy Daily | FIP’s pharmacy supply chain solution

GOVERNMENTS around the world are being urged to give pharmacists greater authority to use their expertise to substitute medications when shortages occur.

In a new Statement of Policy on Medicines Shortages, released yesterday, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) called on governments to seek pharmacists' expertise "when developing national drug policy decisions", particularly around cost-containment measures that may affect access to medicines.

Chair of the FIP Medicines Shortages Policy Committee, Lars-Ake Soderlund, said there was evidence that issues around medicines shortages have been worsening in recent years "compromising patient safety".

"Shortages have been reported in countries of all income levels, occurring across all healthcare settings and involving essential life-saving medicines, very commonly used medicines and both high- and low-price medicines," he said.

As part of the new policy statement FIP and its member organisations have committed to "advocating for a regulatory and policy framework that allows pharmacists in the pharmaceutical chain to exercise their professional competence and responsibility to mitigate shortages and guarantee timely access to medicines for patients".

FIP also noted that medicines shortages have financial and resource impacts on patients associated with increases in out-of-pocket costs, while pharmacy resources are also impacted with staff trying to resolve supply issues.

"Recent data showed that pharmacy staff spend 6.6 hours per week dealing with shortages at [a] European level," FIP said.

"This also means that medicine shortages divert healthcare providers from direct patient care activities.

"In a survey undertaken in Canada in 2018, two thirds of pharmacists (67%) deal with drug shortages daily or several times a day.

"Pharmacists estimate that managing drug shortages can occupy up to 20% of their shift.

"In 2019, European hospital pharmacists stated that the impact that medicines shortages had on patients include delays in care (42%), suboptimal treatment (38%), cancellation of care (27%) and increased length of stay (18%)."