Medicine shortage registers in Europe: who publishes what, and how to read them

Why there is no single list

A shortage is a national event: the same product can be unavailable in Belgium, rationed in France and oversupplied in Germany in the same month, because supply chains, tenders, prices and pack sizes are national. The reporting duties are national too, and each authority defines the thing it records differently: an anticipated gap of a few days, a confirmed inability to meet demand, a discontinuation, a supply restriction the company has imposed. Since 2025 the EU has an overlay for centrally authorised products, but the national lists remain the operational truth.

The EU layer

European Shortages Monitoring Platform (ESMP). Run by the EMA under its extended mandate. Marketing authorisation holders of centrally authorised products must report shortages through it (mandatory since 2 February 2025), and national authorities and companies feed supply-and-demand data into it during crises. It is a reporting and coordination tool; its public face is the EMA’s shortages catalogue, which lists current and resolved shortages of centrally authorised medicines and the major shortages the EU is coordinating on, with the holder’s stated cause, expected resolution and advice.

Union list of critical medicines. First published in December 2023 and updated since, several hundred active substances whose supply the EU treats as critical. The list drives monitoring and, under the proposed Critical Medicines Act, would drive procurement and manufacturing measures; it is not a shortage list but it predicts which shortages will get attention.

Export restrictions. The EU has no common rule; several member states restrict parallel export of products on their national shortage lists, which is where the two subjects meet.

The national registers (working list)

Country	Source	What it records	Public	Note
United Kingdom	DHSC Medicine Supply Notifications via the SPS medicines supply tool; Serious Shortage Protocols; parallel-export ban list	Confirmed supply problems with clinical advice; protocols allowing substitution; products that may not be exported or hoarded	SSPs and the export list public; MSNs for NHS users	No single public register; the export list is the trader’s constraint
Ireland	HPRA medicine shortages list	Current and resolved shortages notified by companies	Yes
Germany	BfArM Lieferengpässe database	Reported shortages of prescription medicines, with a flag for supply-relevant ones; discontinuation notices	Yes	Reporting obligations widened in 2023
France	ANSM: ruptures de stock et risques de rupture; MITM obligations	Shortages and risks for medicines of major therapeutic interest, with company shortage-management plans	Yes	Stock obligations for MITM
Netherlands	Farmanco (KNMP) and the national shortage reporting point (CBG/IGJ)	Pharmacy-reported availability problems; company notifications	Farmanco public
Belgium	FAMHP PharmaStatus	Unavailabilities notified by companies, by pack, with expected end dates	Yes	Export restriction mechanism for listed products
Spain	AEMPS CIMA supply problems; CISMED	Company-reported supply problems; pharmacy-detected signals	Yes
Italy	AIFA carenze e indisponibilità list	Shortages and unavailabilities, with import authorisations	Yes	Import of foreign equivalents authorised case by case
Portugal	INFARMED medicines in short supply	Reported shortages; export notification rules for listed products	Yes
Austria	BASG register of distribution restrictions	Products with restricted distribution, with export ban status	Yes	Export ban list
Switzerland	Federal Office for National Economic Supply (BWL)	Shortages of essential medicines, with reserve-release decisions	Yes	Not EU
Denmark	Danish Medicines Agency supply difficulties lists	Current shortages and substitution advice	Yes
Sweden	Läkemedelsverket restnoteringar	Company-notified shortages with dates	Yes
Norway	DMP legemiddelmangel	Shortages with advice on alternatives	Yes	Not EU
Finland	Fimea saatavuushäiriöt	Company notifications of availability disruptions	Yes
Czechia	SÚKL shortage reports and export-restriction list	Reported shortages; products whose export is restricted	Yes
Poland	Ministry of Health anti-export list	Products at risk of shortage whose export requires notification	Yes	Updated every two months
Greece	EOF export ban list	Products whose parallel export is banned	Yes
Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, the Baltics	National agency shortage lists	Company notifications	Mostly	Scope and cadence vary

Names, scope and access are to be confirmed country by country; the country guides will carry the verified detail and the links.

What “shortage” means in each

• Anticipated versus actual. Some registers list a shortage when a company says one is coming (the EU standard is two months’ notice); others only when pharmacies cannot obtain the product.
• Pack versus product. Belgium and Germany record by pack presentation; a shortage of the 28-pack with the 56-pack available is a shortage in one list and nothing in another.
• Discontinuation. A permanent withdrawal is a different event from a temporary gap and is usually listed separately; the UK’s discontinuation notices are the clearest example.
• Clinical significance. Several authorities flag supply-relevant or critical products; most entries are not.
• Resolution. An entry’s end date is the company’s forecast and is often extended.

How to read them, by role

For a parallel trader. A shortage listing in a destination country is a demand signal and a licence question: the product can be imported if a parallel import licence exists or the authority admits foreign stock (Italy and several others authorise imports of equivalents during shortages). A listing in a source country is a constraint: export bans attach to listed products in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Greece, Poland, Portugal and the UK, among others, and exporting a listed product is an offence, not a commercial risk.

For a buyer. Registers tell you what is short now; the critical-medicines list and the single-source position tell you what will be short next. A product with one supplier and a listing anywhere in Europe is the one to cover.

For a planner or licensor. Company reporting duties, stock obligations (France’s MITM rules, the EU package’s supply provisions) and the ESMP make shortage data a compliance subject as well as a market one; a pattern of shortages on a protected product is also, under the new rules, a threat to its market protection.

MPA Search records licences and prices by country; shortage data is a planned dataset, and the country guides will carry each register’s link and definitions as they are verified.