Fimea advises against overstocking medicine

The Finnish Medicines Agency (Fimea) strongly encourages moderation when buying medicine. Excessively stockpiling medicine at home ‘just in case’ is not recommended even in the special situation caused by the coronavirus; for prescription medicines, follow the Kela guidelines for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.

As a result of over-stockpiling this weekend, pharmacies may have temporary shortages of some medicinal products. However, pain and fever medicines will still be available, and the pharmaceutical wholesalers in Finland have stocks that will be sufficient for normal consumption of pain and fever medicines for more than six months.

To ensure that pharmacies have enough medicine in storage and to normalise the supply from pharmaceutical wholesalers, Fimea urges consumers to only order and purchase the medicines that they currently need. This is necessary in order to enable critical transportation of pharmaceuticals and to normalise the situation as quickly as possible.

Fimea also reminds that all medicines, including over-the-counter medicines, have side effects and adverse impacts; it is important to read the instructions before use and only take medicine when necessary. For paracetamol, it is very important to follow the recommended safe doses (adults max. 3 g/day) to avoid adverse effects such as liver damage.

At the moment, Fimea instructs pharmacies to hand over only one package of over-the-counter pain and fever medicines per customer.

The guidelines for using pain and anti-inflammatory medicines have been drafted by the Finnish health authorities.

Read more:

Kela press release: Delivery intervals for prescription medicines and the coronavirus pandemic (in Finnish)

Coronavirus COVID-19