State of the European Union’s early notification obligation for drug shortages: enforcement and compliance in eight European countries (2020–2022)

BACKGROUND: Early notification of impending drug shortages is essential for mitigating or preventing shortages. Since 2019 pharmaceutical companies in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) must notify authorities of drug shortages at least two months in advance. This study’s aim was to investigate how advance notification of pharmaceutical shortages is functioning in EU/EEA countries and factors possibly associated with differences in notification times. METHODS: This was a retrospective register study using data from publicly available drug shortage registers of all national authorities in the EU/EEA area having such a register. Actual notification times for all drug shortages during January 2020–November 2022 were calculated and included in the descriptive quantitative analysis. RESULTS: Data from eight countries (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden) were available (18,987 notifications in total). Only 5.2% of all shortage notifications were made at least 60 days in advance and 56.2% of all notifications were made on the shortage’s starting day or even later. Data on production-related shortages were available in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, and Norway (n = 2097 showing that 3.9% of those shortages were notified at least 60 days in advance, but 74.3% were made on the starting day or even later. The longest advance notification times for drug shortages were found in Finland during a 12-month period in June 2021–May 2022 when progressive notification fees were in effect. During this national policy experiment, 20.0% of the shortages (n = 1754) were notified at least 60 days in advance, while 24.9% of the notifications occurred on the starting day or even later. Data on notification times for permanent market withdrawals of drugs were available in three countries (Belgium, Slovenia, and Slovakia, n = 1737): 21.2% of these notifications were made at least 60 days in advance, while 45.5% of the notifications occurred on the starting day or even later. CONCLUSIONS: The EU regulatory requirement adopted in 2019 for early notification of drug shortages was unsuccessful in the eight countries having openly available statistics for follow-up. The national policy experiment in Finland with a progressive notification fee seemed to increase compliance with early notification.