Italy's Health Ministry Inspecting Medicine Shortages In Retail, Medical Facilities

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2023) Italian Health Minister Orazio Schillaci on Friday instructed authorities to investigate reports of a significant shortage of medicines in country's retail and medical entities and to establish a new institution, which would connect medical, pharmaceutical industry and distribution specialists.

The institution will involve representatives from the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA), the pharmaceutical industry and the distribution chain. Its task will be to identify shortages of pharmaceuticals in the country and to take measures to timely procure the medicines, meet the needs of Italian nationals, and avoid consumer panic.

On January 10, AIFA published a list of medicines that face temporary shortages, which consisted of 3,197 titles and included anti-inflammatory, antipyretic pharmaceuticals and antibiotics, which were especially in demand due to a peak of influenza epidemic in the Apennines region.

Meanwhile, AIFA chief Giorgio Palu said that the country was truly short of only 328 medicines as they could not be substituted by generics and were purchased from overseas. He added that the situation was not alarming.

Experts say that the shortage of medicines in Italy might be caused by the consequences of the new COVID-19 outbreak in China, and by the fact that a number of pharmaceutical companies transferred their productions abroad for commercial reasons.