Globalization, natural disasters and distribution channels largely explain the difficulties in supplying pharmacies.
“In September, we counted 539 missing drugs,” confirmed Tuesday Isabelle Adenot, president of the Order of Pharmacists, in the columns of Figaro. Its evaluation, recently mentioned in why actor, according to which we were going to discover “thanks to a new pilot software set up that it is not at all 45 drugs which have supply difficulties, but that it is much more! Was therefore true. But then, why the figures on the difficulties of supplying drugs in pharmacies given by the Order are so far from those online on the site of the?Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM)? Explanations.
The Ansm lists the stockouts of essential drugs
To draw up its balance sheet, the Agency only lists emergency supplies and declarations linked to a shortage of essential drugs. Conversely, the DP-rupture used by the Order is an alert system allowing pharmacists to send instantaneous information to the laboratory as well as to the Ansm in the event of a rupture in their orders. It is therefore a photograph that is closer to reality. But the software is also likely to list missing drugs that can be easily replaced in pharmacies.
Result, to each his own method, to each his own figures. The Agency’s website is therefore currently reporting 45 specialties that are out of stock. In this list, nervous system drugs (18%), anti-infectives (17%) and anticancer drugs (11%) are the most concerned classes. Regarding the recent alert on Levothyrox, a drug prescribed to 3 million French people to regulate their thyroid, it is still threatened with out of stock.
The missing drugs will be more and more numerous
“Drug stockouts are a problem that will unfortunately continue to grow. This global phenomenon is very difficult to resolve, ”also noted Isabelle Adenot. The president of the Order of Pharmacists linked these problems to manufacturing defects. “When there were earthquakes in Italy, some factories were the only ones to manufacture certain drugs. When the plant can no longer function, necessarily, behind, there is something missing, ”she said.
Another explanation put forward by Isabelle Adenot, that of the wholesale distributors who, for some, buy en masse stocks of drugs in countries manufacturing them at low prices. The goal of the maneuver? Then resell these specialties in countries where they are marketed more expensive. This rush for these low-cost stocks sometimes causes a disruption in the supply chain and in some cases even creates stockouts.
.
