Lithuania, like other EU countries, has been facing a shortage of antibiotics. Doctors are forced to adjust their treatment plans to what’s available, while drug authorities expect supply to revive in spring.
“Amoxicillin is usually the biggest problem right now, it is not available yet,” says Lina Stočkutė-Plytnikė, a pharmacist at one of the outlets of Gintarinė Vaistinė.
There has never been such a shortage of antibiotics before, the pharmacist says. She says she is in contact with colleagues at other pharmacies and often refers patients to them. But lately, there are shortages everywhere.
“We have to warn doctors in nearby clinics not to prescribe some antibiotics, or to prescribe something else,” says the pharmacist.
Simona, a patient, says when she went to a doctor to get her prescription, it was a little unusual.
“They warned me that there were antibiotics shortages everywhere and gave me a few options and said, go and see, if the first option is not available, just take the second one,” she says.
According to Elena Šukė, a family doctor, she now has to prescribe the so-called second choice drugs, a stronger and narrower spectrum medicine. But there is no alternative.
“Often now, doctors have to completely rethink the whole treatment regimen, because we are following global guidelines when prescribing antibiotics for a specific bacteria, and then we have to break with those guidelines and to use whatever is available in pharmacies,” says Šukė. “We have to make the treatment plan on the basis of that, which is very time consuming and can lead to complications for the patient.”
The Drugs Control Agency says there is a shortage of antibiotics with the active ingredient amoxicillin across Europe. The reason for this is the huge increase in demand following the Covid pandemic. Fewer people were suffering from colds during the pandemic, which led to a slowdown in production and orders, but now the demand is back to its usual level.
The Agency says it has taken steps to improve the situation.
“We issue authorisations quickly for the supply of medicines in packaging labelled in foreign languages, in other words, if a supplier can only supply a drug this way, they apply to us and we issue an authorisation very quickly,” says Aistė Tautvydienė, spokeswoman for the Drugs Control Agency.
“Through the mediation of the European Medicines Agency, we are clarifying with one of the manufacturers to supply an unregistered medicinal product to Lithuania,” she adds.
There are no alternatives to antibiotics at the moment.
“If there is a bacterial infection, we have to treat it with antibacterial drugs, and history is the best example of this – before the advent of antibiotics, pneumonia was a fatal disease,” says Šukė, the family doctor.
There are currently four manufacturers in Europe producing the antibiotics that are in short supply, and three of them are registered in Lithuania. According to the Drugs Control Agency, the shortages should end in April.
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