Solutions to medicine shortages offered by pharmacists Europe 2025| ��ƽ��

Solutions to medicine shortages that can be legally offered by pharmacists in European countries from 2024 to 2025

Characteristic	2024	2025
Generic substitution	89%	93%
Preparing a compounded formulation	64%	70%
Alternative sources (other pharmacies, manufacturers)	61%	59%
Importing from EU/EEA (when available in other countries)	50%	56%
Therapy and posology adjustment (medicine available in different strength)	46%	52%
Therapeutic substitution	21%	15%

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Release date

2026

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Region

Europe

Survey time period

January 15, 2026 to February 15, 2026

Number of respondents

27 countries

Supplementary notes

Original question: "Which solutions can legally be offered by pharmacists in case of a shortage? Tick all that apply."
Countries who participated in the survey include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden. Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Medicine shortage was defined as every (temporary) inability for a community or hospital pharmacy to supply patients with the medicinal product requested as a result of factors beyond their control, requiring the dispensing of an alternative agent or even discontinuation of an ongoing medical therapy.

Citation formats

According to a survey conducted in early 2026, only around 15 percent of European countries that reported experiencing medicine shortages in their countries during the last 12 months allowed pharmacists to legally offer a therapeutic substitution as a solution for a medicine shortage. This graph illustrates solutions to medicine shortages that can be legally offered by pharmacists in European countries.