Nearly 250 medications used by Irish patients are currently out of stock, research has found.
According to the Medicine Shortage Index, there is a particular shortage of anxiety and insomnia tablets including generic versions of the medicines. Several medications to treat blood pressure are also in short supply. In total, there are 248 medicines currently out of stock in the country, 13 of which are on the World Health Organisation’s "critical medicines" list.
The shortage, which represents a 48 per cent increase compared to last year, has been partly blamed on commercial reasons, reports the Irish Mirror. Furthermore, “unsustainably low pricing” for off-patent medications was one of the driving factors in creating shortages, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal. The research, published this morning, also concluded that 38 per cent of the out-of-stock medication had just one supplier.
