Rising Antimicrobial Resistance is a threat faced all over the world. Bacterial infections that were treatable with antibiotics only a few years ago can now lead to life-threatening conditions. This thesis is part of the work of a large platform, PLATINEA, trying to reduce the rate of new resistances occurring in Sweden by preventing non optimal treatment. Due to shortages of the right antibiotics, suboptimal antibiotics are prescribed, which has shown to be accelerating the resistances among the bacterial populations. This study proposes an information exchange database and a central storage model for critical antibiotics to circumvent stock outs and inconveniences resulting from shortages of medically valuable antibiotics. Through interviewing prominent actors in the Swedish pharmaceutical supply chain an inside into the procurement of antibiotic in Sweden and what concerns are faced by the organs involved was created. Literature studies on occurred shortages of antibiotics in Sweden and the world were examined and possible reasons for these were identified. Examination of governmental efforts and assignments created the context in which gaps were identified that this thesis work could fill. A focus on Benzylpenicillin and Rifampicin were kept throughout the study. The collected data led to the implementation recommendation of two models by this study. An information platform suggested to allow better, faster and more accurate information exchange between all involved actors of the supply chain as well as a centralized storage model for the storage of antibiotics with medically high value in Sweden.  Through the implementation of the model systems shortages of critical antibiotics can be circumvented and better availability of information leads to quicker reactions ability to stock outs of other antibiotics.

The fast-increasing issue of antibiotic unavailability or relatively their shortages in the healthcare system has been the point of concern for many countries. With these shortages come unnecessary costs and the need to utilize less optimal treatment thus increasing the risk of antimicrobial resistance and jeopardizing a patient’s health. This thesis is a collaboration with PLATINEA (Platform for Innovation of Existing Antibiotics), aiming to optimize the usage of antibiotics and to increase the availability of important antibiotics in Sweden. To understand the causes that affect antibiotic unavailability, a good view into the antibiotic and pharmaceutical supply chain is important, especially the purchasing systems of it. The complexities in the purchasing system can lead to interruptions in the antibiotics supply chain thus increasing the risk of antibiotic shortages. These shortages in turn increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance, therefore, the purchasing system requires the need to be analysed extensively. This study aims to explore different purchasing systems and conduct cost-benefit analysis of centralized purchasing system in efforts to help reduce shortages of antibiotics in Sweden. This study is based on the existing literature on centralized and decentralized purchasing and also the pharmaceutical supply chain. Qualitative interviews (semi-structured), multiple reports and articles steered the authors in exploring the purchasing systems and mapping the costs and benefits of centralized purchasing. Throughout the research, emphasis was kept on reducing antibiotic shortages. The findings of this study outline the various costs and benefits of a centralized purchasing system and resulted in the implementation recommendation of it over an existing decentralized purchasing system in Sweden.