Overview
- An official shortage notice in the Federal Gazette permits time‑limited deviations from approval and labeling rules so foreign‑labeled equivalents can be used.
- Depot penicillins are vital for preventing rheumatic complications from streptococcal infections and are the standard single‑dose treatment for syphilis, with alternatives often less effective.
- The ministry had flagged risks since last summer as the only nationally authorized product faced production conversion delays and a bridging stock projected only into early 2026.
- Other antibiotic substances, including cefuroxime, clindamycin, cotrimoxazole and erythromycin, are already under critical supply pressure, and such formal shortage findings have been made fewer than 20 times since 2015.
- Authorities report roughly 550 current shortage notifications across about 100,000 authorized medicines, and EU lawmakers recently advanced a Critical Medicines Act that includes plans for an EU reserve of essential drugs.