Health Minister: There is no shortage of medicine for treatment of Covid-19 patients

Currently, at national level, Bulgaria does not have a shortage of any of the medications used to treat Covid-19 patients, Health Minister Kostadin Angelov said on November 11 after a meeting with representatives from the Bulgarian Pharmaceutical Union, pharmaceutical distribution firms and the Medicines Agency.

The topic came up after reports of a shortage of drugs and low-molecular weight heparins for pregnant women.

He said that it was the stockpiling of medicines that gave the impression of a shortage.

“We also do not have a specific drug that is used to treat this viral infection. The drugs that are used are for the prevention of bacterial complications in this viral infection,” Angelov said.

He added that the ministry had been told of a shortage of low-molecular weight heparin. I have made arrangements that will come into effect by the end of the day, he said.

Pregnant women prescribed the drug must produce the prescriptions at pharmacies, and a certificate of a laboratory genetic test. We require this in order to prevent abuse of the available quantities of the medication at pharmacies.

Angelov said that by the end of the day, the Medicines Agency would publish on its website a list of all pharmacies that had low-molecular weight heparin in stock. Phone numbers for contacting wholesalers will also be published.

"What we are seeing is extremely worrying. Bulgarian citizens, driven by irrational decisions, are buying the medicines on the market en masse, claiming that they are treating COVID. Self-medication is dangerous," Minister Angelov warned.