Medicines with supply problems: 207 in 2025

The Information Center on the Supply of Medicines (CisMED), of the Collegiate Pharmaceutical Organization, reported this Monday that a total of 207 Medicines were affected last year by incidents or alerts in the supply in community pharmacies, which represents a decrease in 27.4% in front of the 285 notified in 2024.

According to the reportwith data from 13,483 pharmacies, a total of 101,364,392 incidents in the supply, a 13.2% less than the previous year, when the total was 116,818,024. This means that 2025 It is the second consecutive year in which the total number of incidents and affected drugs decreases.

The weekly average was 44 medications with incidents, a 26.7% less than the previous year, when this figure was 60 drugs. CisMED aims to monitor drug shortages in pharmacies in real time in order to anticipate supply problems and minimize their impact on patients.

Of the medications that were missing, only one 6% They were non-substitutable medications, when in 2024 they were until 8%. one of each 10 Incidents or alerts detected in CisMED belong to the list of critical medicines of the European Union.

Depending on the type of medication, two out of every three drugs that presented incidents were indicated for the nervous system (20%), digestive (20%), cardiovascular (14%) u sense organs (12%). Drugs follow dermatological (9%) and anti-infectives for systemic use (8%).

Medicines with supply incidents are used in more than 350 indications, of which most frequent They were high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes mellitus, neuralgia, rheumatoid arthritis, acute myocardial infarction, cystitis, low back pain, migraine, angina pectoris, osteoarthritis, depression, dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation), skin infection, fever and muscle contracture.

The report details that, during 2025once the first quarter of the year had passed, supply shortages in antibiotic medications with pediatric amoxicillin have experienced a drastic decrease that continues today, going from exceeding the 30% of pharmacies with these faults to not reach the 10%.

Likewise, it states that the percentage of pharmacies with shortages of insulin supply has been increasing during the past year and, currently, is estimated at more than 15%.

The role of community pharmacy

The vice president of the General Council of Pharmacists, Juan Pedro Risquezhas pointed out that drug supply problems are a complex issue caused by multiple factors and that generate uncertainty, difficulties for patients and great pressure on all agents in the medicine chain. “Community pharmacies do not cause drug supply problems, but they are helping to alleviate their effects,” he highlighted.

As explained, pharmacies are the first place where these errors are detected, even before they are officially notified or the problem becomes widespread. For this reason, it has valued the role of tools such as CisMEDwhich is complemented by others such as FarmaHelp, which allows us to offer a solution in seven out of 10 cases in which the patient does not have the medication in their usual pharmacy.

The vice president of the General Council of Pharmacists has highlighted, in line with the latest report of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU), that pharmacists allocate around 11 hours a week to manage medication supply shortages, helping the patient find solutions to start or continue their treatment.