BHealth Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to restrict the privilege of pharmacies when dispensing medicines and allow general practitioners to dispense corona medicines such as the preparations Paxlovid and Evusheld directly to sick patients in the future. This is what the Ministry’s draft bill for the new Corona Drug Supply Ordinance, which is available to the FAZ.
In Germany, the so-called right to dispense lies with the pharmacies. Lauterbach now wants to make an exception for antiviral corona preparations. According to the draft, general practitioners should be given the opportunity “to store and dispense the approved antiviral drugs procured by the federal government for the treatment of COVID-19 diseases” and receive appropriate remuneration for this.
Delivery by doctors is intended to prevent severe courses
As a reason, the Federal Ministry of Health writes that the protection of older people in particular should be improved. Antiviral corona agents are intended for infected people who have a comparatively high risk of a severe course of the disease. According to experts, for the treatment to be successful, it is important that the drug Paxlovid is administered as early as possible, no later than five days after the onset of symptoms – direct delivery by the family doctor can save those affected time, as they do not have to go to the pharmacy first have to go.
“The drugs can help prevent severe COVID-19 courses, especially in vulnerable groups,” writes the ministry. Paxlovid is reported to reduce the risk of hospitalization by 90 percent and mortality by 70 percent. However, it is rarely used, Lauterbach recently warned.
Representatives of family doctors praised the minister’s initiative. The chairman of the General Practitioners’ Association, Ulrich Weigeldt, spoke on Tuesday of “great progress in the care of corona risk patients”. However, antiviral drugs are not a substitute for vaccination, warned Weigeldt.
Doctors and pharmacists are constantly fighting over who is allowed to dispense medicines. The “Edict of Salerno” has been in effect since the 13th century, according to which doctors should not run a pharmacy at the same time – this is intended to ensure that therapy recommendations are not made based on economic aspects. Pharmacists have already campaigned for a different solution than the one that Lauterbach is now striving for.
Thomas Preis, the chairman of the North Rhine Association of Pharmacists, suggested that pharmacies should be allowed to dispense the corona drugs after a positive PCR test without a doctor prescribing the drug. “After a positive PCR test result, going to the doctor’s office to pick up Paxlovid means that patients lose valuable time for rapid therapy,” said Preis of the German Pharmacist newspaper. “The better solution would be for pharmacies to dispense Paxlovid directly to patients after they have presented a positive PCR result – if necessary also after consulting the doctor by telephone.”
