The Pharmaceutical Information Centre has introduced environmental classification of medicines to Finland. The environmental classification helps healthcare professionals make responsible environmental choices in situations where several equally effective and safe medicines are available to treat a disease or its symptoms.
In recent years, there has been a strong increase in medicine shortages. According to the Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea, the number of shortage notifications made by marketing authorisation holders is increasing continuously. In 2020, more than 2,000 supply shortage notifications were made to Fimea, which means that the number of notifications has increased fourfold since 2016.1
The Pharmaceutical Information Centre’s Pharmaca Fennica drug datahub is very versatile. In addition to online services, mobile app and handbook, the Pharmaca Fennica database is used as part of patient and pharmacy databases. The Pharmaca Fennica services are constantly being developed: new materials related to patient safety were recently added to the services, for example.