The session on drug shortages will cover legislation, stakeholder responsibilities, and the Belgian situation: number, duration, and causes of shortages, as well as critical medicines. It explains the role of the FAMHP, its actions, and the importance of timely notifications. Topics also include the definition and types of unavailability, Farmastatus and competition concerns, EU legislation, the Critical Medicines Act, and derogations.

PROGRAM

The session opens with a presentation by Sophie Bruneel of the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP), which will cover the general legal framework, EU legislation, the current situation in Belgium, and the roles of the various stakeholders involved.

Several key stakeholders then share their perspectives in short interventions of around 10 minutes each. Contributions come from APB (Michaël Storme), community pharmacists (Katharina Jacobs), pharmaceutical industry (Mariagrazia Sturniolo), hospital pharmacists (Céline Van Wetter) and patient organisations (Koen Mariën).

The session concludes with a panel discussion moderated by Isabel Vanderriest where all speakers engage in a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the challenges and possible solutions to drug shortages.

• 13h00 - Welcome coffee & registration
• 13h30 - Presentation by the FAMHP
• 14h30 - Perspective of 2 stakeholders
• 14h50 - Networking break
• 15h30 - Perspective of 3 stakeholders
• 16h00 - Panel discussion
• 16h45 - Closing

If there are topics or questions that you would like to see addressed during this session, feel free to do some suggestions using this form. Thank you!