Various Andalusian neurologists warn of the lack of supply of any drug to indicate Parkinson’s and epilepsy. According to the specialist, Spanish pharmacies suffer from unprecedented shortages, where they supply more than 730 drugs according to the Medicines and Health Agency (Aemps) “in years of impact on neuronal diseases”.
It was carried out on Monday by a group of specialists who are part of the Center for Advanced Neurology (CNA), with offices in the provinces of Spain, Cádiz, Huelva and Málaga. Specifically, as CNA digests, these are commonly used drugs for the systematic treatment of epilepsy and Parkinson’s such as Clonazepam, Clobazam, Valproic Acid, Levodopa/Carbidopa, Carbamezepine and Rotigotine.
The problem that I have explained is repeated in the same way in all parts of the Andalusian community. “Something that has been happening for more than two years but has increased in months,” said neurologist Hernando Pérez Díaz and director of the medical center. “Certainly in the field of neurology, there is a continuous shortage of commonly used drugs. The worst is drugs such as levodopa in Parkinson’s and some anti-epileptics such as clobazam or clonazepam and valproic acid, in fact they are drugs that do not have substitutes,” he added.
Neurologists warn of anxiety among patients about what they consider a “dangerous deficiency.” “They call us desperate” and when they don’t have these simple substitute drugs, we will tell them places like Gaditan or Portugal where they can find them”, they point out from CNA.
In the province they recognize this problem. Some pharmacists from different points of Hispanic consultant confirm this to this journal, “in some cases more than in others”, but at this time they are comparing the problems of the forces that the neurologists report. Although these questions are recognized, from the Andalusian Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists (CACOF) they categorically reject speaking of shortages, because they care that part of the drug can be replaced by others that have the same active drug.
“The supply of medicine for certain neuronal pathologies is more or less restored. It is true that in certain moments there is a lack of supply, but the shortage is not so great that the medicine does not appear”, the sources explain. they consulted They state that pharmacies have a series of mechanisms to find solutions and reach the medicine that the patient needs. “We have computer tools to find the medicine when the laboratory does not supply it at a certain point. Even in the case that we do not find it in other pharmacies, most of these medicines have an alternative to foreign medicines. With which a. patients who are calm seek, as in the beginning, their medicine they do not run, they name.
Even the Director of Relations with the Industry and Communication of the distributor Bidafarma, one of the most important collaborators of the province of Spain and Baetica, Ignacio Pérez calls for calm. “We do not consider the situation of these drugs to be a reason for vigilance at this time,” this medium said in a statement. Among all the drugs indicated by neurologists, Pérez identifies problems with only one of these Hispals, Clobazam. “The service level is at 43% now, but for the rest, either there is no problem, or the level of service is normal,” he explained. “Let the company be calm, because if something does not come from the factory or is in short supply, you can always draw from others,” he adds.
The CNA calls on the authorities to try to solve this “urgent and so crucial for health, which affects so many people” problem. “This is a problem that generally affects all types of medicine and is extended to the whole country, according to a recent report from the Pharmaceutical Services, which reports that in 2022, more than 70 medicines with defects will be found weekly. A significant stock; both national and local”, the experts conclude in a statement released this Monday.
