Medicine shortages can have serious consequences for patients and public health and place a heavy burden on healthcare systems. The limited availability of Visudyne has impacted the planning, prioritisation and prescribing of patient treatment. Once the shortage is fully resolved, EMA’s shortage catalogue will be updated.

The MSSG plays a significant role in implementing key measures of the EU’s revised pharmaceutical legislation and Critical Medicines Act (CMA) — supporting a more proactive and coordinated approach to preventing and mitigating medicine shortages. This work includes carrying out vulnerability assessments of critical medicines to identify and address weaknesses in supply chains, such as overreliance on single manufacturing sites and other factors that may increase the risk of shortages.

EMA is also expanding the functionalities of the European Shortages Monitoring Platform (ESMP), a digital tool designed to enable faster, more consistent and more…