Euromedicine is not for everyone: Medicine shortages reach record levels across Europe

Medicine shortages across Europe have reached record levels, with 136 critical drugs running short between 2022 and 2024, ‘Brussels Times’ reveals.

Although the EU medicines agency helped limit their impact, the EU still lacks an effective system to prevent such crises, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) warned on Wednesday in a new special report.

“Medicine shortages are a persistent issue across the EU and have grown in frequency and severity, reaching record levels in 2023 and 2024,” said Klaus-Heiner Lehne, the ECA member who led the audit.

He described the situation as not only a problem for patients and a challenge for health systems, but also a sign of the EU’s strategic vulnerability.

It was, he stressed, “high time for the Union to develop an effective remedy to cure critical shortages and tackle them at their roots.”

According to the report, Belgium was the EU country most affected by critical medicine shortages in 2024, recording more cases than any other member state up to October.

The findings underscore how national health systems, even in well-resourced countries, remain highly vulnerable despite EU-level measures aimed at securing supplies.

At the centre of the problem are fragile supply chains and economic pressures. Much of Europe’s production of active pharmaceutical ingredients has shifted to countries such as China and India, leaving the EU heavily dependent on a handful of foreign manufacturers for essential medicines.

A major obstacle lies in the fragmentation of the single market and the absence of a comprehensive EU-wide data network, which limit EMA’s ability to act effectively.

“The single market is fragmented, with different packages, non-transparent pricing and trade barriers,” Lehne said, warning that these barriers make it harder to ensure the smooth flow of medicines across member states.

Lehne underlined that closer cooperation between member states and EMA is essential, calling for stronger knowledge exchange and more consistent collaboration at the EU level.

…The question arises: the European Union declares itself “a single space.” However, the example with medicines demonstrates that this is a fiction!

It seems that the division of Europe may now occur along yet another line – “healthcare for all.”

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