Contaminated milk on all shelves. Supermarkets, pharmacies, hospitals, nurseries, wholesalers: boxes of contaminated products were found there in places. This affair nonetheless awakens the drug war between supermarkets and pharmacies.
Tins of contaminated milk were found in some of the major retailers’ hypermarkets. A glaring forecast of the inability of supermarkets to manage the sale of medical products according to the Union des Groupements de Pharmaciens d’Officine. And even less that of drugs.
Pharmacists at the forefront of safety
From the first withdrawals-reminders of infant formula by the company Lactalis at the beginning of December 2017, the National Order of Pharmacists worked with the health authorities (DGS, DGCCRF) and mobilized to transmit information to pharmacists at the flow of water.
The pharmaceutical sector immediately organized itself to manage the withdrawal of infant and nutritional products and to supply pharmacies with substitute products. The problem is that it has also been found in some pharmacies.
General failure
“In terms of proportions, supermarkets are much more responsible than pharmacies”, underlines Laurent Filoche president of UDGPO in an interview with Sciences et Avenir. However, according to the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, boxes of contaminated milk were found in 30 supermarkets and 44 pharmacies.
However, the Order warned that, if it turned out that certain pharmacists had continued to dispense products implicated by the recalls, disciplinary proceedings would be immediately initiated. Procedures that are unlikely to find their equal in mass distribution.
The drug war is awake
A Lactalis affair that has rekindled tensions that have long existed between pharmacies and supermarkets. The sale of drugs without a prescription is a historic claim of the E. Leclerc group. The opposition of pharmacists and the back-pedaling of the government did not allow this project to succeed.
For Laurent Filoche, the Lactalis affair proves once again the inability of medium and large surfaces to deal with the sale of medicines: “When we are not able to manage situations that endanger babies, it There is no need to claim the right to sell potentially lethal drugs, ”he concludes.
In the end, everyone, including the government, shifts the hot potato of responsibility over the tainted milk affair as this affair highlights the failures of the entire chain, from production in the Lactalis factory. for sale by groups of distributors or pharmacies. But if some pharmacists will be sanctioned, it is certain that neither the state, nor the distributors will be condemned. For Lactalis, consumers will appreciate.
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