Re-started production helps to end Swiss methadone shortage

Swissmedic lifts the ban on Aargau-based drug company to produce methadone again. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

After having had its licence withdrawn and months of inactivity, the Amino AG drug company can start producing methadone again, contributing to the easing of the methadone shortage in Switzerland.

Swissmedic, the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, has lifted the ban imposed on Amino AG from Gebenstorf, in canton Aargau at the end of last year, which had prevented the company from producing new methadone or selling what it had already produced.

According to the agency, the Aargau producer had shown some deficiencies in the process of compliance with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) last summer, so its licence had been suspended. 

This had created great concern, since around 9,000 people in Switzerland regularly take methadone. The drug is often used to treat patients dependent on opioids. After the company was closed, the Swiss Society of Addiction Medicine (SSAM) warned of a possible shortage of methadone tablets and called for the importing of these tablets to be simplified.

+ Swiss pharmacists warn of medicine shortages

In January, addiction specialist Thilo Beck told SRF that methadone is classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a vital drug for the treatment of people addicted to opiates, such as heroin. “The existence of these people is threatened,” he said.

Supply problems had worsened in Switzerland and in February the government created a taskforce to deal with what they called “problematic” shortages of medicine in the country.

+ Paediatricians call for action against medicine shortage

But the emergency now seems resolved and the company Amino AG received its operating licence and can start producing methadone tables again.

Their machines have been out of action for a few months, so the tablet production should start in the next few weeks and, according to SRFExternal link, the company has already received many orders.

The ban on tablet sales had already been lifted in March, when Swissmedic gave the company the permission to sell already-produced tablets. In February they were also able to produce methadone capsules in cooperation with a pharmacy.

If the methadone shortage crisis seems resolved, Switzerland is facing other serious problems with medicine production, since it heavily relies on Asia for its medicaments. Earlier in the month, morphine shortages were said to be critical in some Swiss hospitals, with the country being forced to switch to alternative supplies for critical medicines.