Infusion and irrigation solutions are indispensable elements for outpatient and inpatient care (in hospitals, healthcare centers, doctors’ offices, and drugstores).
Infusion solutions such as isotonic saline solutions, are medicines and serve, in addition to their function as a liquid replacement, as carriers and injection solutions to dissolve and dilute medications.
Irrigation solutions are medical products and are used for rinsing during surgical procedures and in sterile wound care.
The current shortage of infusion and irrigation solutions is the result of various factors.
On the one hand, there are delivery shortages at suppliers of glass bottles. As a consequence, Fresenius notified the responsible authorities of a shortage in the supply of infusion solutions – especially isotonic saline solutions - in glass bottles (50 ml and 100 ml) at the beginning of March and at the end of May.
In addition, there are structural challenges, since the general demand for infusion and irrigation solutions is growing in general (prompted by the demographic shift, an ever-increasing number of surgeries performed at hospitals, stockpiling, etc.), but there are at the same time only a few manufacturers left in the market.
In addition, the second major supplier in Germany reported a supply bottleneck and an acute shortage in the USA after Hurricane Helene damaged the largest production plant for infusion solutions in the USA that is operated by a US supplier.
Supplying our patients with medicines and medical products is our top priority. Hence, we engage in an ongoing dialogue with our customers and the relevant authorities and are reviewing the possibilities to improve the long-term supply situation.
Here at Fresenius, we are doing everything in our power to counteract the current capacity shortage in the market. Therefore, we are increasing our production volume, as much as possible. In addition, we have applied for the accelerated ramp-up of new production lines in the US, and we want to enable our existing plants outside the EU to supply EU-regulated markets.
However, it will take time for the measures we have initiated to take full effect on the market.
This is because producing infusion and rinsing solutions is strictly regulated, complex as well as energy-intensive, and therefore also costly. Hence capacities cannot be increased at short notice and as desired.