Medicine shortages in Europe: how the EU is responding
Find out how serious Europe’s drug shortages are, what the causes are and what the EU is doing to prevent them, especially for life-critical medication.
Medicine shortages have been a recurring concern throughout the European Union (EU) for years. The problem became more obvious during the COVID-19 pandemic. More recently, drug shortage issues have been aggravated by growing geopolitical tensions.
Across the EU, 2023 and 2024 saw record levels of medicine shortages reported. EU countries ran critically short of 136 medicines between January 2022 and October 2024.
The EU is already monitoring drug shortages across member states. It is working on delivering legislation to prevent shortages of drugs and on specific measures to guarantee the availability of medicines essential for life-threatening conditions.
What is a medicine shortage?
A medicine shortage occurs when there isn’t enough of a specific drug available for patients when and where they need it. Pharmacists cannot dispense prescriptions, hospitals run short of stock, and patients may have to wait longer, find alternative medicines or simply go without treatment.
What are the root causes of the medicine shortages in Europe?
The causes of drug shortages are complex, with over 50% of reported shortfalls caused by manufacturing issues. These issues include a lack of production capacity in the face of unexpected surges in demand, commercial decisions, and vulnerabilities in the availability of key ingredients, especially when those ingredients come from limited suppliers based outside the EU.
There are big differences between EU countries in terms of medicine availability. Each country is responsible for the purchase of medicines according to its budgets and needs.
The fact that most medicines are authorised nationally and that those authorised for the entire EU are not made available in all countries by their manufacturers also increases the risk of bottlenecks.
How are drug shortages monitored in the EU?
Shortages can affect all categories of medicines and medical devices, including antibiotics, insulin, cancer treatments and vaccines.
For many years, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has been in charge of monitoring shortages and availability issues for medicines authorised in the EU. The EMA has a dedicated platform to gather information from national authorities on medicine availability, supply and demand. It keeps an up-to-date list of ongoing shortages and resolved cases.
What is the EU doing to prevent medicine shortages generally?
After the 2020-2022 COVID pandemic showed the need for increased coordination among European countries to protect people’s health, the EU started to build a “Health Union”. This gathers under the same umbrella a set of key measures designed to ensure that the EU and its countries are better prepared to address health threats and that medical supplies are available.
The most important pillar of the EU Health Union is the comprehensive reform of EU pharmaceutical legislation.
According to the new rules, which have still to come into force, medicine shortages will be monitored at both national and EU levels, and the EMA will keep a list of medicines for which there are acute shortages in the EU. The idea is that when countries experience insufficient stocks, they can ask for help from other counties, through a “voluntary solidarity mechanism”.
Pharmaceutical companies will meanwhile be obliged to ensure an appropriate and continued supply of the drugs they sell in the various EU countries and to inform the EMA of any supply disruptions as soon as possible. They will also be required to put in place and update shortage prevention plans for a wide range of medicines.
What is the EU doing to prevent shortages of critical medicines specifically?
Critical medicines are those that are essential for treating serious or life-threatening conditions and for which there are few or no suitable alternatives. Their continued supply is considered a priority in the EU.
Listing at EU level which medicines are critical
The first EU list of critical medicines was published in December 2023.
This critical medicines list is updated regularly. If a drug is on the list it does not mean that it is likely to run low in the near future; rather, it means that it is very important to prevent shortages of it, to avoid causing serious harm to patients who would no longer have access to it.
The list currently contains more than 270 active substances, including antibiotics, insulin, vaccines, and medicines for chronic and rare diseases.
Critical medicines act: increasing the EU’s manufacturing capacity
To complement existing measures and improve the availability of critical medicines in the EU, the European Commission proposed a specific new law in March 2025 - the critical medicines act.
This future law aims to boost investment in EU pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity by means of “strategic projects” (industrial projects that could benefit from easier access to funding). It would also offer an improved framework to enable EU countries to join forces and increase their purchasing power.
As a key player in passing EU law, the European Parliament is currently in talks with EU governments on what the critical medicines act should look like. In their negotiating position MEPs are calling for:
- a dedicated “critical medicines security fund” in the next EU budget;
- a “Buy European” approach that would allow national contracting authorities to favour producers manufacturing a significant proportion of these critical medicines in the EU;
- the possibility to redistribute national stockpiles towards EU countries that are experiencing shortages.
Find out what else the EU is doing to protect your health:
