Tasks

The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) provides an overview of current supply shortages for medicines for human use (excluding vaccines) in Germany. The notifications are submitted by the pharmaceutical companies and are based on the voluntary commitment to report shortages of supply-relevant medicines declared within the “Pharmaceutical Dialogue of the Federal Government”.

Learn more

Shortages in focus

The BfArM provides additional information on specific shortages that are of particular public interest. Those information includes recommendations of the Advisory Council on shortages as well as predictions on re-availability.

Latest news

News on shortages can also be received via RSS Feed. Please note that the information is available in German only.

Shortage registers

Information on national shortages of medicines for human use (excluding vaccines) can be accessed via the BfArM shortage register. Please note that the information is available in German only.

• Overview of current supply shortages for human medicinal products (excluding vaccines) in Germany

Information on national shortages of vaccines for human use can be accessed via the shortage register of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institute.

Supply Shortages of Human Vaccines

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) publishes information on ongoing and resolved shortages of human medicines that affect multiple member states of the European Union (EU).

EMA shortages catalogue

Mitigation measures and additional information on shortagesMitigation Measures

During ongoing shortages, the BfArM is in constant contact with the marketing authorization holders and the affected medical societies in order to determine mitigation measures. As a result exemptions can be granted or therapy recommendations can be published. The collected information is listed within this subpage, summarized under the affected active ingredient. In addition, general recommendations are collected within this topic in order to improve patient care.

Read more

Reporting shortages

Reporting obligations

A shortage notification is considered particularly necessary if the number of marketing authorisation holders, manufacturers responsible for batch release or manufacturers of a specific active substance falls below a critical threshold. Additionally, the voluntary commitment to report supply shortages applies to all active substances for which a supply shortage already occurred in the past.

Read more

National and European initiatives

The BfArM participates in several initiatives on national and on European level to continuously optimize the supply with medicines and to enhance the informal exchange between the involved stake holders.

Coordination of the production of important active substances

The project 'Coordination of the production of important active substances' is a further module for sustained improvement of the security of supply with medicines in Germany. 

Read more