Madrid (EFE) be as inactive as possible.
As reported to Efe by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), the supply problems of this drug, an injectable solution in a syringe from the Amdipharm Limited laboratories, will last until May and the cause is due to a increased demand beyond what the company can supply due to its launch throughout the European Union.
At the moment, the laboratories are carrying out a controlled distribution to ensure that it is carried out in the most equitable way, ensuring a distribution according to the needs, according to the AEMPS.
lanreotide, the active substance in Myrelez
Despite this attempt, patients residing in Madrid have denounced the problem and have verified the lack of supply in pharmacies in this community after consulting more than a dozen establishments and four of the main distributors (Alliance Healthcare, Bidafarma, Cofares and Vadefarma) that They have confirmed that they have run out of stock.
In principle, these patients have denounced that neither in the pharmacy nor in the hospital setting have they been offered information on the reason for the lack of supply, nor have they been prescribed an alternative treatment such as, they say, ‘Somatulina’.
Precisely about this therapeutic alternative, the AEMPS has pointed out that the drug ‘Somatulina autogel’, from Ipsen, has the same active ingredient, lanreotide, so the pharmacy will be able to offer it once the supply problem has been officially published.
The Medicines Agency has also reported that there are currently two production lines for the manufacture of the drug and it is planned to incorporate a third line in July and August, given the increase in demand at the European level.
Spanish pharmacies detected supply problems in 403 drug presentations in 2022, 150 percent more than a year earlier, especially in the groups for the nervous and cardiovascular systems, and in a “very significant” way for pediatric amoxicillin and some antidiabetics.