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SummaryThe German drug shortage database is the Lieferengpass register maintained by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM), which publishes supply shortages reported by marketing authorisation holders for prescription medicines, at pack level with a start date, an expected end date, a reason and, where available, notes on alternative products. It is a register of self-reported notifications, not a measurement of what is actually on pharmacy shelves, and understanding that distinction is the difference between using the data well and misreading it.
This article takes the data view: what is in the register, what the fields mean, what the register systematically does not contain, and how professionals actually find a supply-able alternative when a product is short. The reporting process itself, meaning who notifies whom and what happens inside the authority, is covered separately.
The register is published through the PharmNet.Bund shortage notification database, with the explanatory framework on the BfArM Lieferengpaesse pages. Each record is a notification about one product from one authorisation holder, and it carries a consistent set of fields.
| Field | What it holds | How reliable it is |
|---|---|---|
| PZN and product name | The German article number identifying the exact pack, plus strength and pack size | High. This is the one field that joins cleanly to other German data. |
| Marketing authorisation holder | The company making the notification | High, but company names vary in spelling across sources. |
| Start of the shortage | The date from which supply is interrupted | Reliable as a reported date, not necessarily as the date the market felt it. |
| Expected end | The date the holder expects to resume supply | An estimate that is revised. Treat it as a forecast, never as a commitment. |
| Reason | Category such as production problem, capacity constraint, increased demand, active substance supply | Categorised at a coarse level. Useful for trend analysis, thin for root cause. |
| Alternatives | Notes on whether alternative preparations exist | Indicative. It flags that alternatives exist; it does not tell you they are in stock at your wholesaler. |
| Supply-relevant flag | Whether the product carries an active substance on the supply-relevant or supply-critical list | Authoritative, set by BfArM after consulting the advisory committee. |
A Lieferengpass is a supply shortage reported by a company; a Versorgungsmangel is a supply deficiency formally declared by the Federal Ministry of Health. The first is a notification, the second is a legal act, and only the second changes what pharmacies are permitted to do. Conflating them is the most common error in reporting on German shortages.
BfArM defines a Lieferengpass precisely: an interruption of normal supply expected to last longer than two weeks, or a markedly increased demand that cannot be adequately met. That is a threshold about logistics, not about patients. BfArM states plainly that a Lieferengpass does not have to be a Versorgungsengpass, because alternative products are often available.
A Versorgungsmangel is a different instrument. On the basis of BfArM findings and with input from the state authorities, the Federal Ministry of Health can declare a Versorgungsmangel under section 79 paragraph 5 of the Medicinal Products Act (AMG). The declaration is published in the Bundesanzeiger and is time-limited. What it unlocks is regulatory flexibility: state authorities may then permit, case by case, that medicines not authorised in Germany are placed on the market, provided they may lawfully be marketed in the country they come from.
| Lieferengpass | Versorgungsmangel | |
|---|---|---|
| Who triggers it | The marketing authorisation holder, by notification | The Federal Ministry of Health, by formal declaration |
| Legal basis | Section 52b AMG | Section 79 paragraph 5 AMG |
| Threshold | Interruption expected to exceed two weeks, or unmeetable demand | A deficiency affecting medicines needed for life-threatening conditions, or a serious communicable disease situation |
| Where published | BfArM shortage database | Bundesanzeiger announcement |
| Practical effect | Information. No change to what may be dispensed. | State authorities may permit non-authorised medicines to be placed on the market, for a limited period |
| Frequency | Continuous, thousands of records over time | Rare, reserved for genuinely critical situations |
The ALBVVG, the Act to Combat Supply Shortages and Improve the Supply of Medicinal Products, came into force in 2023 and turned the German shortage regime from a mostly reactive notification system into one with standing data duties, stockholding obligations and an early warning function. It was published in the Federal Law Gazette, and its substance now sits inside section 52b AMG and the related social security provisions.
From a data perspective the important additions are these:
The effect on the public register is that the raw data behind it is now richer and more current than what is published. Most of the new reporting flows to the authority, not to the public database.
Four gaps matter in daily practice, and none of them is a defect in the register. They are boundaries of what it was built to do.
"What matters to us is being able to look for alternatives in procurement whenever a supply shortage is flagged." (Hospital pharmacist, German hospital pharmacy; translated from German)
Knowing that a product is short is the easy half. The work is finding something you can actually order. In practice the search runs through a sequence, and each step needs a different data source.
Steps four and five are the ones that break down when your data stops at the German border, and they are also the steps that matter most in exactly the situations where the shortage is severe.
The European level offers only partial help here. The EMA shortages catalogue lists shortages assessed at EU level, which is a deliberately narrow set: shortages affecting more than one Member State, or concerning centrally authorised products, or needing a coordinated response. It is not a European view of national shortages, and it is not an availability tool.
Which means cross-border sourcing is a reconciliation exercise. You need to know, for one active substance, which products are authorised in which markets, at which strengths and dose forms, under which national article numbers, and whether those markets are themselves reporting a shortage. None of the national registers does this for you, because each was built for its own jurisdiction.
This is the specific gap pharmazie.com was built to close. BfArM shortage notifications are integrated daily, so the German picture stays current without anyone downloading a file. On top of that sits product data from 50+ countries, more than 50,000 German products and more than 120,000 international products, in one search across 25+ pharmaceutical databases. That combination is what makes the sequence above completable: when the German answer runs out at step four, the international coverage is in the same interface rather than in a separate research project. For cross-border alternative sourcing across DACH and the wider European market, that is the most complete single answer we are aware of.
Take a typical record: one PZN, a start date three weeks ago, an expected end in two months, reason given as a production problem, and a note that alternatives are available. That record supports far fewer conclusions than people assume.
It tells you that this authorisation holder cannot supply this pack in the usual volume, and that BfArM did not classify the situation as one without alternatives. It does not tell you that other holders of the same substance are supplying normally, because they report only for their own products and only when their own threshold is crossed. It does not tell you that the two-month estimate will hold, because estimates are revised as production recovers or fails to. And it does not tell you that the alternatives named are obtainable, because the register has no visibility into wholesaler stock at all.
The correct reading is therefore narrow and useful: this record is an early warning about one product from one company, dated, with a coarse reason and a soft forecast. Used that way it is genuinely valuable. Used as a picture of the market it will mislead you, and the direction of the error is not consistent, because under-reporting and over-reporting both occur depending on how conservatively individual companies interpret the two-week trigger.
If you work with the register analytically rather than case by case, three rules keep the analysis honest.
This content is intended for healthcare professionals and does not constitute medical advice. Last reviewed: July 2026.
