The unexpected reason makes the world scarce of drugs

Around the world there is a continuous shortage of this drug or another drug. The American Pharmacists Association (ASHP) has listed 157 substances that are facing scarcity in this country alone. The list includes everything from antibiotics to vaccines and cancer drugs.

According to experts, the sad reality may come from a reason that seems irrational: the prices of some medicines are too low.

What seems to happen sometimes is, some version drugs ( generic drugs - generic drugs for pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties, are produced when the industrial property rights of proprietary pharmacies expire and are therefore usually sold at a low price), sold overnight at a price nearly 14 times higher than the price of the previous day. However, the opposite is happening more commonly: dozens of versions of drugs are no longer circulating in the market because the price is too low.

Drug prices will increase when there is more transparency in quality as well as drug production methods.

That may happen when pharmaceutical companies produce more generic versions, but it is much cheaper than an original brand name (branded drug) , such as clindamycin. When these companies produce enough version drugs to satisfy market demand, the price will continue to fall until the production of drugs is no longer profitable. At this time, firms began to stop producing those drugs, leading to scarcity if the remaining drug manufacturers had any problems.

"Drugs can be very cheap. To have a stable market model, you need at least 3 and ideally 5 different pharmaceutical manufacturers," said Hans Hogerzeil, professor of global health professions. from the University of Groningen (Netherlands), served as director of array of essential pharmaceuticals at the World Health Organization (WHO), said.

Having many manufacturers create a safety net. If any of them has problems, forcing them to stop production, other firms can increase production to compensate. If the price is too low and the manufacturers decide to give up, the safety system is no longer effective. However, that does not mean, setting a minimum price to keep pharmaceutical companies continuing to produce is the right solution to the problem of drug scarcity, because we are always in a state of "too high drug prices. or too low, nothing seems reasonable. "

Erin Fox, director of the Pharmaceutical Information Agency at the University of Utah School of Medicine (USA), expects drug prices to rise when there is more transparency in the quality and way of producing drugs. WHO has planned to discuss the scarcity of drugs for the first time at the World Health Assembly session in May.