By decision of 21 September 2023, the European Commission has not objected Denmark’s intent to make 15m DKK (€2m) available to ensure sufficient supply of critical medicines.
Denmark notified the Commission of its intent to make the state aid available under the under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework to support the economy following the aggression against Ukraine by Russia.
One of the issues that Denmark says it has faced is that it has experienced increasing supply difficulties and shortages of critical medicines in recent months, with the Danish Medicines Agency having received nearly double the number of cases of supply failures for the first quarter of 2023 compared to the fourth quarter of 2022.
In real terms, pharmaceutical wholesalers supplying pharmacies in Denmark are faced with significant increases in delivery failures, leading to shortages of critical medicines in Danish pharmacies.
The types of medicines affected are those that treat epilepsy, diabetes, heart diseases, as well as certain types of infections. The aid will be given to winner(s) of a tendering procedure for stockpiling critical medicines at the wholesale level, won through a public procurement procedure under the applicable Directive. The state aid is for a limited period of time, until the end of December 2023.
Thus, the Commission has concluded that the national measure is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State and is compatible with the internal market pursuant to Article 107(3)(b) TFEU.
The Commission’s authorisation, where it raised no objections to the state aid in aid number SA.107407, is available here.