Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has met with top bosses in the pharmaceutical industry over a shortage of medical supplies. Last month South Africans went into a state of panic after the department published on its website a list of medicines that were out of stock. These shortages have affected both the public and private health sectors and are caused by a lack of pharmaceutical ingredients globally. The urgent meeting took place on Friday with 32 executives from pharmaceutical companies and suppliers who have been experiencing difficulties supplying about 155 product lines over the past couple of weeks, the department said in a statement on Monday. "The medicines affected by these shortages include certain antibiotics, cardiovascular medicines, analgesics, anaesthetic agents and central nervous system medicines."