{"id":425714,"date":"2026-04-30T19:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425714\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T19:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T19:37:07","slug":"fuel-crisis-likely-to-add-to-medicines-shortages-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/425714\/","title":{"rendered":"Fuel crisis likely to add to medicines shortages in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Irish medicines regulator gets around 111 notifications of medicines shortages every month and <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/business\/economy\/arid-41836040.html\">the fuel crisis<\/a> is likely to add to this.<\/p>\n<p>Manufacturing issues account for just over half of all shortages according to Ellen McGrath, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-41698928.html\">Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA)<\/a> medicine shortages and borderline classification manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe get about 111 notifications a month of actual or potential shortages, that\u2019s 2025 data,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In 2022 manufacturing issues accounted for 50.6% of shortages, followed by 16.7% related to a sudden rise in demand and commercial reasons linked to 11.2%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Distribution issues accounted for 10.6% of shortages, her data shows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s a global problem, it\u2019s a global supply chain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She added: \u201cIt\u2019s so complex, so at the moment we see issues with the petrochemical industry and by-products like plastic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMost of our tablets are put into plastic packaging, aluminium foil, and this is probably happening at the back-end where the supply disruptions happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Framework agreement\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">There is a framework agreement in Ireland to try and limit this. It involves patient groups, the HSE, and other State groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe actually, under the framework, prevent about 20% of shortages when we look at all the data that\u2019s available to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Interaction with pharmaceutical companies is \u201ccritical\u201d she added as they have to give notice of upcoming shortages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe get on average 11 days\u2019 notice,\u201d she said. \u201cSo the new pharmaceutical legislation is mandating six months in advance of a supply interruption.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">This was agreed last month between the state and the pharma industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She shared data showing that, up to now, notice is 19 days in advance on average in February but drops to three days around Christmas and 10 days after a shortage occurs in July.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Looming pabrinex shortage\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She described the impact of getting &#8220;good notice&#8221; for a looming shortage of pabrinex, a high-dose vitamin injection.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Doctors had time to change how they used this to focus on high-need patients and limit waste more than usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat was so effective that the shortage was delayed by nearly over a year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms McGrath also told the Axis Patient Access in Ireland conference how countries limit eligibility for new medications. This can help ensure supply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In 2019 some 42% of innovative medicines were available for public reimbursement without restrictions but that was 29% by 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish medicines regulator gets around 111 notifications of medicines shortages every month and the fuel crisis is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49382,424,63615,103,2120,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-425714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-consumer-affairs","tag-drugs","tag-fuel-prices","tag-health","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}