At present, stock-outs are affecting medicines containing semaglutide, which are used to treat diabetes but are also very popular for weight loss, as well as a number of medicines for epilepsy and anxiety. The same goes for various types of painkillers, antibiotics and anaesthetics used in hospitals.
However, no medicine is manufactured in the Grand Duchy. Most of the medicine sold in Luxembourg pharmacies is imported from Belgium.
And yet, distribution quotas do not correspond to actual consumption in Luxembourg, says Eric Maynadier, Managing Director of Comptoir pharmaceutique (CPL), Luxembourg’s leading medicines wholesaler.
“These quotas are based on pathology statistics that are often, and I would say historically, based on those of Belgium. So, obviously, for the size of the Grand Duchy, these quotas are prorated to the size of the local population,” he explains.
At the same time, the illnesses suffered by patients in Luxembourg and Belgium are different, despite them being neighbouring countries. This is one of the two complications he sees as cause for the recurrent medicine stock-out. The second cause lies in the marketing strategy of pharmaceutical companies, Maynadier adds.
“This means that the laboratory sells in Europe, where it can sell it most expensively. Given that the situation in Luxembourg is similar to that in Belgium of low-priced medicines, it is not surprising that some suppliers and manufacturers, would rather sell their medicines to other European countries,” he continues.
For wholesalers, the economic situation keeps worsening. They have to adapt and anticipate stock-outs, by stocking the maximum amount possible so that they can continue to supply pharmacies. Which also means that they have to finance these quantities of medicines in advance.
For Eric Maynadier, one solution would be to build larger stocks with financial support from the government. Work along these lines has already been carried out on an ad hoc basis, but it would be important to identify critical drugs and set up a national security reserve.
