Beyond short-term measures for paracetamol and amoxicillin, the plan provides for a “new prevention strategy”.
by Zeliha Chaffin
Anti-infectious, antiepileptics, antibiotics, antidiabetics, etc. The supply of health products have become the daily scourge of pharmacists and hospital doctors. They have continued to worsen in France for fifteen years. Faced with the situation, the government announced, on Friday, February 3, the launch of a medication steering committee on Friday, February 3, intended to lay the groundwork for a “new strategy in terms of prevention and management of shortages”.
At the end of a meeting with players in the health sector, including patient representatives, health professionals and drug manufacturers, this steering committee, under the aegis of the ministries of Health and industry has sketched a series of projects to be implemented in the coming months. They will constitute the frame of the future roadmap for the coming years to fight against the shortages of health products, which will be presented in June.
The phenomenon of shortages is not new. At the beginning of spring 2020, the first wave of COVID-19 had already highlighted the difficulties of supply on certain drugs in the event of a crisis. Three years later, the situation took a critical turn. In 2022, more than 3,000 drugs of major therapeutic interest were reported in rupture or risk of rupture by pharmaceutical manufacturers. They were 1,504 in 2019.
“Secure the care of our fellow citizens”
The highlight was reached this fall, when the pediatric forms of paracetamol and amoxicillin, two basic of the most consumed pharmacy cupboards in France, began to miss at the Comptoir des officines. After having, at the beginning of autumn, put the extent of these shortages into perspective, the government redoubled efforts this winter to remedy them. Friday, he announced the prosecution, “until the situation improves in a lasting way”, crisis measures put in place on these two products, including in particular the rationing of stocks, the prohibition of exports by wholesalers and the use of masterful preparations by pharmacists.
Tensions on amoxicillin should also fade with delivery by Biogaran and GSK, within a fortnight, of more than a million bottles of this antibiotic, made on the Mayenne site, in the ‘West of France. “As of next week, 750,000 amoxicillin boxes will be delivered to pharmacies. In total, this additional supply represents the equivalent of one month’s consumption of this product,” explains Jérôme Wirotius, Managing Director of the Biogaran Laboratory and Vice- President of the gem, the organization of generic drug manufacturers in France, which is delighted with the anti-penal measures announced by the State.
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