Transparency

Methodology &
Data Sources

How engpassradar.ch records, processes and evaluates Swiss drug shortages.

Data Sources

Private platform of Martinelli Consulting GmbH for recording drug shortages in Switzerland. Pharmaceutical companies voluntarily report shortages and authorisation withdrawals here. All product data, status codes and alternative products come from this source.

BWL — Federal Office for National Economic SupplyMandatory stockpile list

The BWL publishes the list of medicinal products subject to mandatory stockpiling. Products on this list are particularly critical for Switzerland's supply security — in the event of a shortage there is an increased risk for patients.

ODDB / yweseePrices & ATC

The Open Drug Database provides pharmacy retail prices (ex-factory) as well as ATC codes for reported products. This data is matched daily to keep price changes and therapeutic classification up to date.

USB — Hospital Pharmacy BaselHospital pharmacy

The University Hospital Basel (USB) publishes a weekly drug shortage report from its hospital pharmacy as a PDF. This contains internal SAP numbers, affected active substances and — particularly valuable — concrete substitution recommendations from a clinical-pharmaceutical perspective. This source supplements the drugshortage.ch data with a hospital pharmacy perspective that is otherwise not publicly accessible.

Collection & Updating

Update cycle

daily

products tracked

9’373

shortage episodes total

9’564

currently active shortages

713

An automated scraper runs daily and retrieves all reported shortages from drugshortage.ch. New products are recorded, existing entries are updated and — if a product disappears from the platform — the shortage episode is marked as closed (resolved). This episode logic makes it possible to analyse the total duration and frequency of shortages per active substance over time.

Prices and ATC codes are matched in a separate step from ODDB. The BWL mandatory stockpile list is compared on every scrape run, as it changes only rarely.

The weekly drug shortage report from the Basel Hospital Pharmacy (USB) is automatically retrieved as a PDF and parsed. The contained active substances and substitution recommendations are kept in a separate table and are not directly linked to the drugshortage.ch entries — the data serves as a supplementary, clinical-pharmaceutical perspective.

Episode Tracking

Each shortage is tracked as an episode — a temporally delimited period in which a product is reported as a shortage on drugshortage.ch. If a product disappears from the reporting platform, the episode is considered closed. If the same product reappears later, a new episode begins.

Field	Description
opened_at	Date on which the product first appeared as a shortage in this scrape cycle
closed_at	Date on which the product was no longer listed in the reporting platform
duration_days	Calculated duration of the episode (closed_at − opened_at)
is_active	true as long as the shortage is currently active

Analytical Evaluation

For analyses such as «Most frequent drug shortages by active substance», product names are normalised: the first part of the trade name (before the strength and dosage form indication) serves as a proxy for the active substance. Active substance groupings make it possible to combine multiple strengths and generics of a medicine — e.g. «Pregabalin» with 22 active strengths/companies simultaneously.

Exact active substance normalisation via ATC code is planned for future versions. The current methodology covers the majority of cases, but may be incomplete for combination products or strongly deviating trade names.

Severity Score

How the score is calculated

The engpassradar score is a proprietary index (0–100) that condenses the severity of a drug shortage into a single value. Higher values mean more severe shortages. The score combines four independently weighted factors and thus enables rapid prioritisation — for example in the daily supply check in hospital or community pharmacies.

The score does not replace clinical judgement. It is a screening tool based on publicly available data from drugshortage.ch and the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (BWL).

Tiers

80–100

Critical

Highest priority: no alternatives, long duration, company does not communicate, BWL-relevant.

60–79

High

Increased attention required: several aggravating factors combined.

40–59

Medium

Moderate shortage: individual factors increase severity, alternatives often available.

0–39

Low

Low risk: short duration, good communication, alternatives available.

The four factors

1. Transparency

0–35 points

Evaluates how openly the company communicates about the shortage. High transparency (status 1) leads to fewer points — because a cooperative company reduces the risk for pharmacies and patients. No information (status 4) is the most severe case.

Status code	Description	Points
1	Reported directly — full transparency	5
2	Reported — without exclusive access	12
3	Sporadic reports	22
4	No information from the company	35
5	Negotiations ongoing	20

2. Duration

0–30 points

Longer shortages are harder to bridge. The duration is based on days since report from drugshortage.ch (field «Reported on»).

Duration	Points
≤ 14 days	5
15–30 days	10
31–90 days (3 months)	17
91–180 days (6 months)	22
181–365 days (1 year)	27
> 1 year	30

3. No Alternatives

0 or 20 points

Are there alternatives (active-substance-equivalent products) listed on drugshortage.ch? If so, the shortage can be bridged and the factor counts 0 points. If alternatives are missing, the score increases by 20 points.

4. Mandatory Stockpile / BWL

0 or 15 points

Is the product on the mandatory stockpile list of the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (BWL)? Mandatorily stockpiled products are critical for Swiss supply security. If so: +15 points. Data source: daily reconciliation with bwl.admin.ch.

Formula

Score = Transparency  (0–35)
      + Duration      (0–30)
      + Alternatives  (0–20)
      + BWL           (0–15)
      ─────────────────────
      = 0–100

Limitations & Notes

01The score does not evaluate therapeutic need — an antihistamine with a score of 80 is not necessarily more urgent than a heart medication with a score of 40.
02Alternative recognition is based on the link reported by drugshortage.ch, not on a complete active substance database.
03Transparency assessment can change daily as companies update their communication status.
04The score is calculated live on every page request — no separate database storage.