Romania implements emergency measures to combat medicine shortages

Romanian Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete has convened an emergency meeting with pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors to address critical medicine shortages in hospitals. The initiative aims to prevent severe supply disruptions for essential treatments, particularly for oncology, cardiovascular, and rare diseases.

Key measures include a new requirement for weekly reporting of consumption and stock levels for national health programs to the Ministry of Health. Authorities also plan to increase national reserves of critical medicines to allow for rapid redistribution between hospitals when necessary.

These actions follow findings from Ministry of Health inspections that revealed significant deficiencies in digital reporting automation, which hindered the early detection of stock depletion. The ministry is working with the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices in Romania (ANMDMR) and industry associations, including ARPIM and APMGR, to integrate new protocols into technical platforms and secure supply lines.