Tasks

The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) provides an overview of current supply shortages for human medicinal products (excluding vaccines) in Germany. The notifications are submitted by the pharmaceutical companies and are based on the voluntary commitment to report shortages of supply-relevant medicinal products declared within the “Pharmaceutical Dialogue of the Federal Government”.

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Shortages in focus

The BfArM provides additional information on specific shortages that are of particular public interest. Those information includes recommondations of the Advisory Council on shortages as well as predictions on re-availability.

Latest News

News on shortages can also be received via RSS Feed. Please take into account that information is provided in German language only

Shortage databases

Information on shortages of medicines for human use (vaccines are excludeds) in Germany can be obtained via the shortage database provided by the BfArM

• Notified shortages for human medicines in Germany (vaccines are excluded)

Information on shortages of vaccines for human use in Germany can be obtained via the shortage database provided by the Paul Ehrlich Institute

Supply Shortages of Human Vaccines

The European medicines agency (EMA) publishes a list of shortages which are considered to affect more than one memberstate of the European Union (EU)

Shortages catalogue

Mitigation measures and additional information on shortagesMitigation Measures

During ongoing shortages, the BfArM is in constant contact with the marketing authorization holders and the affected medical societies in order to determine mitigation measures. As a result exemptions can be granted or therapy recommendations can be published. The collected information is listed within this subpage, summarized under the affected active ingredient. In addition, general recommendations are collected within this topic in order to improve patient care.

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Reporting shortages

Reporting obligations

A shortage notification is considered particularly necessary if the number of marketing authorisation holders, manufacturers responsible for batch release or manufacturers of a specific active substance falls below a critical threshold. Additionally, the voluntary commitment to report supply shortages applies to all active substances for which a supply shortage already occurred in the past.

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National and European initiatives

The BfArM participates in several initiatives on national and on European level to continuously optimize the supply with medicinal products and to enhance the informal exchange between the involved stake holders. 

Coordination of the production of important active substances

The project 'Coordination of the production of important active substances' is a further module for sustained improvement of the security of supply with medicines in Germany. 

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