Czechia Still Lacks Key Breast Cancer Drug — Ministry's Promises Fall Through

Czechia continues to struggle with shortages of tamoxifen, a crucial drug for treating breast cancer, even as it remains readily available in other European countries such as Germany, Poland, Spain and France.

The original medication has been absent from the Czech market since last year, when the manufacturer halted deliveries. Since June, its generic substitute has stopped arriving as well. In mid-July, the Ministry of Health promised the drug would return to shelves within a week — but that never happened.

Last year's prolonged supply disruption of the original drug affected the entire European market. In December, the Ministry of Health authorized the use of an unregistered generic containing the same active substance in Czechia. "However, its supply was subsequently interrupted as well, due to capacity and logistics constraints," the ministry said two weeks ago.

According to oncologists cited by the ministry, a brief pause in treatment or a delay in starting it — after consulting with the attending physician — does not pose a serious risk as long as it does not exceed 14 days.

"We advise patients facing a temporary lack of the medication to contact their attending physician and agree on the next steps together," the Ministry of Health said previously. According to the ministry, around 7,900 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Czechia every year.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz