Cyberattack on main distributor of pharmacies disrupts medicines supplies

A cyberattack on one of the main distributors of Catalan pharmacies, Alliance Healthcare, is disrupting medicines supplies, according to the Spanish daily 'El País.'

The company has been experiencing IT issues since Friday, the newspaper first reported and the Catalan News Agency (ACN) later confirmed.

Alliance Healthcare said to 'El País' that they are working to "limit the impact" of what they consider an "interruption of the IT system."

While the affected company is one of the leading distributors to Catalan pharmacies, the industry has been able to cope with medicines supplies as they work with different distribution companies.

This alleged cyberattack occurred just two weeks after the attack on Barcelona's Hospital Clinic. At the time, IT systems blocked server access while hackers were able to get the data from the health center saved.

Hospital Clinic's cyberattack

On March 5, 2023, a cyberattack wreaked havoc on Hospital Clínic, one of Barcelona's leading public hospitals, causing surgery and appointments to be cancelled and forcing staff to work with pen and paper.

Listen to our Filling the Sink podcast episode published on March 18, to learn more about it.