Europe’s drug regulator has decided not to label the antibiotic shortage on the continent a “major event”, given existing measures to tackle the shortfall were working in the short term, it said in a statement on Thursday,
A “major event” label would allow the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to coordinate action at a pan-European level and increase the reporting obligations of manufacturers.
The EMA’s decision, which Reuters revealed earlier on Thursday, is focused on shortages of certain widely used antibiotics, including amoxicillin – used to treat bacterial infections and often prescribed for ear and chest infections in children – that emerged back in November.
