Greece seeks EU support over medicines shortage

Greece on Tuesday asked the European Commission and EU neighbours for help to tackle a dire shortage of medicines, worsened by exports of locally made pharmaceuticals.

Health Minister Thanos Plevris wrote to the Commission calling for “stepped up pharmaceutical production” across the bloc.

Greece has been battling a shortage of essential medicines for months, including antibiotics, anti-inflammatory products and cough mixtures.

“It is imperative to adopt central policies across the EU as a whole to resolve this problem,” Plevris wrote in a letter to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

Stepping up production in the EU would comprise one solution, Plevris suggested.

Greece’s pharmaceuticals agency (EOF) has banned the export of certain products in short supply and said part of the problem was linked to global supply chain issues.

But the president of Greece’s pharmacists’ union, Konstantinos Lourantos, said domestically-produced medicines were among the cheapest in Europe and being exported at a premium.

He told financial site Naftemporiki the situation was “getting worse.”

Plevris vowed to step up inspections of wholesalers in a bid to curb exports of medicines which are scarce.

The main leftist opposition part Syriza accused the conservative government of acting far too late , saying “doctors and chemists have been warning of the problem since last year.”