Millions of patients are chronically taking medications, and stopping them can even lead to death. The Ministry of Health has a list of essential medicines and wants as many of them as possible to be produced in Poland. Polpharma has already opened a factory for the production of highly active substances in Starogard Gdańsk, and Adamed has opened new laboratories in Pabianice.
We already know which drugs are important. Their suddenness in a short period of time, for example, a month, can cause the death of thousands of Poles. The Ministry of Health has compiled a list of three hundred such articles. There are many heart medicines in it.
-This exacerbation can occur in less than a month, for example, we have antihypertensive drugs. I remind you that there are 11 million people with hypertension in Poland, explains prof. Marcin Grabowski, cardiologist and specialist in internal medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw.
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Of these eleven million Poles, about nine million take the medicine regularly, often every day. This includes one and a half million patients with heart failure and one million patients with atrial fibrillation. For them, the sudden termination of treatment means a death sentence. The problem is that most of these drugs, including their packaging, are produced in the Far East.
– This is the result of the dependence of the whole world on various types of substrates and ingredients produced in China. Why do we produce there? Because it is cheaper there, – explains Mariusz Politowicz, a member of the Supreme Pharmaceutical Council, who works at the pharmacy “Pod wąką” in Pleszew.
Cheaper does not mean safer. The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have shown how long-distance supply chains can be disrupted.
– That is why we are working to create a system of incentives for the Polish pharmaceutical industry, for the pharmaceutical industry in general, so that the most important drugs are produced in large quantities in our country, – says the Deputy Minister of Health Care Republic of B. Marek Kos.
They sent an appeal to the Minister of Health. They note that almost two million Poles in the coalition “To dependent persons” do not have a pharmacy.
Poland already has something to be proud of
Whether they are Polish or foreign manufacturers, it is important that pharmaceutical factories are located in Poland.
– This is the essence of the name of important medicines. If, God forbid, something happens, if we have to close the borders, if one day customs control is restored at the borders, it may even be the reintroduction of customs control, this will already disrupt our supply chain, – says Prof. Filipiak Krzysztof J. Filipiak from the group of pharmacotherapy and drug policy of the Supreme Medical Chamber.
In this regard, good things are already happening: in October in Starogard Gdansk “Polpharma” factory for the production of highly active active substances was opened, and in November another Adamed company in Pabianice opened new respiratory medicine laboratories. This is just the beginning of such an investment.
In addition, Poland can boast of an integrated system of monitoring the trade of medicinal products. Thanks to it, we immediately know which medicines are in short supply in the country.
– As far as I know, in no other country there is such an extensive system that collects data once a day, because this is the essence of this system, – emphasizes Artur Falek, an expert of Rafal Piotr Janiszewski's health system.
Main photo source: Fact TVN
