Millions of patients take medications on a permanent basis, and stopping them may even result in death. The Ministry of Health has a list of critical drugs and wants as many of them as possible to be produced in Poland. Polpharma has already opened a plant for the production of highly active active substances in Starogard Gdański, and Adamed has launched new laboratories in Pabianice.
We already know which drugs are critical. Their sudden absence in a short period of time, for example a month, could lead to the death of thousands of Poles. The Ministry of Health has prepared a list of three hundred such substances. There are a lot of heart medications on it.
– This exacerbation could occur in less than a month, for example, we have medications for hypertension. Let me remind you that there are 11 million people in Poland who have hypertension – comments Prof. Marcin Grabowski, cardiologist and specialist in internal diseases at the Medical University of Warsaw.
Of these eleven million Poles, as many as nine million take medications systematically, often every day. This includes one and a half million patients with heart failure and one million with atrial fibrillation. For them, abrupt cessation of treatment would mean a death sentence. The problem is that many of these drugs, including their packaging, are manufactured in the Far East.
– This is a result of the entire world's dependence on various types of substrates and ingredients produced in China. Why do we produce there? Because it's cheaper there – explains Mariusz Politowicz, a member of the Supreme Pharmaceutical Council who works at the “Pod wąką” pharmacy in Pleszew.
Cheaper does not mean safer. The pandemic and war in Ukraine have shown how easily such distant supply chains can be disrupted.
– That's why we are working to create a system of incentives for the Polish pharmaceutical industry, as well as for the pharmaceutical sector in general, so that critical drugs are produced in our country in the largest possible dimensions and quantities – says Deputy Minister of Health Marek Kos.
They sent an appeal to the Minister of Health. They point out that almost two million Poles do not have a pharmacy in their commune Coalition “To help the dependent”
Poland already has something to be proud of
Regardless of whether they are Polish or foreign producers, it is important that drug factories are located in Poland.
– This is the essence of the list of critical medicines. If, God forbid, something happened, if we had to close the borders, if one day customs controls were restored at the borders, it could even be the reintroduction of customs controls itself, this would already impair our supply chain – says Prof. Krzysztof J. Filipiak from the Pharmacotherapy and Drug Policy Team of the Supreme Medical Chamber.
Good things are already happening in this respect: in October, Polpharma opened a plant for the production of highly active active substances in Starogard Gdański, and in November, another company, Adamed, launched new laboratories for inhaled drugs in Pabianice. This is just the beginning of such investments.
Additionally, Poland can boast of the Integrated System for Monitoring Trade in Medicinal Products. Thanks to it, we immediately know what medicine may be in short supply in the country.
– To my knowledge, no other country has such an extensive system that collects information once a day, because that is the essence of this system – emphasizes Artur Fałek, an expert on the health care system from the Rafał Piotr Janiszewski Consulting Office.
Main photo source: Fakty TVN