Why might a pharmacy run out of my medicine?
The majority of medicinal products used in Finland are manufactured outside Finland’s borders.
Imagine a situation where the plant from which a product's active substance is derived from, grows in a rainforest in Brazil. The substance is then extracted from the plant in Japan and the extract inserted into soft capsules in the US, before the capsules are packaged in Germany. Even a small disruption in the global pharmaceutical market can have a wide impact: the exhaustion of raw material, quality problems in production, a fire at the factory or a natural disaster, such as a flood or earthquake, can cause supply interruptions in the entire market area.
If a shortage of a medicine is global, suppliers of other similar products are unlikely to have had the opportunity to adapt to the resulting increased demand. This may also result in shortages of substitute products, especially if no new products are placed on the market or the original product is not available in pharmacies, as necessary.
Risks related to the availability of medicines have been identified especially in the early and final stages of a product’s life cycle. Products that have been on the market for a long time and no longer have competitors are particularly susceptible to disturbances. In this case, the alternative to a prescription medicine is often another treatment determined by a physician, and customers can ask for advice on alternatives to an OTC medicine from a pharmacy.
If a pharmaceutical is temporarily unavailable, the pharmaceutical company must notify Fimea of this. Fimea publishes the information reported by the company in a public information service found in Fimea’s medicine shortages search portal.