The Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions is warning of drug shortages in France. They concern antibiotics, anti-diabetics and even anti-cancer drugs. A response plan has been activated by the ANSM.
- According to the president of the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions, nearly 4,000 medications are out of stock or at risk of being out of stock.
- Amoxicillin and cortisone are among the products affected.
- At the beginning of October, the ANSM activated a plan to combat these shortages.
Some drawers are empty in French pharmacies. According to the president of the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions, around 4,000 medicines are out of stock or at risk of being out of stock in France. Pierre-Olivier Variot, pharmacist in Plombières-lès-Dijon in Côte-d’Or, announced this Thursday, October 26, in an interview with France Info.
What drugs are affected by the shortage?
This shortage affects various medications, including those that are particularly prescribed in winter such as amoxicillin or cortisone. But the pharmacist specifies that many other categories are concerned such as anti-cancer drugs, anti-hypertensives, analgesics, anti-diabetics. “We have occasional breakups, which will last a month, two months, some maybe longer, he indicates. But we also have breakups that are long-term and then it becomes dramatic..” According to him, these stock shortages are observed in all French regions.
How to combat drug shortages?
The healthcare professional recalls that these stock problems appeared around ten years ago. They are linked to a mismatch between the production of medicines and needs. “But there is also, and here, I have no explanation, a part of the medicines which evaporate, which disappear, between the industrial and the pharmacies, and there, I don’t know where it goes, and no one has the answer, he observes. We keep asking the question to the Medicines Agency, to bring transparency into the circuit.” According to him, relocating the production of certain molecules is the most effective way to get out of this crisis.
Shortage of medicines: a winter plan launched by the ANSM
At the beginning of October, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products announced the activation of its 2023 – 2024 winter plan to combat drug shortages. “This plan aims to anticipate and limit tensions on certain major medicines for the winter and thus secure coverage of needs for patients.specifies the organization in a communicated. Among the measures envisaged in the event of pressure on stocks, there is “the importation of medicines initially intended for other markets, quotas, adjustments to the distribution circuit or the mobilization of compounded preparations”. Four categories of medications will be particularly monitored: antibiotics, including amoxicillin, fever medications, oral corticosteroids and asthma medications.
???? No, pharmacies are not responsible for drug shortages
✊ We demand structural reforms to anticipate and resolve these shortages.
❌ The DAU is not one of them! On the other hand, transparency across the entire drug chain, yes! pic.twitter.com/fgNjoWZp4G
— USPO – Community Pharmacists (@USPO_Pharmacies) October 9, 2023
“Master preparation of medications, dispensing on a unit basis: pharmacists are subject to shortages and it is they who are asked to resolve the problem: this is unacceptable!” replied Pierre-Olivier Variot in a communicated. For these health professionals, the issue of drug shortages must become an absolute priority for the Ministry of Health. “Mr. Minister, there is an emergency for all patients and for the entire network of pharmacies who can no longer support this situation, alerted the president of the USPO. We never accept a deterioration in care.”
