Manufacturers justify themselves by invoking production delays. Doctors denounce an unacceptable and dangerous situation for patients.
Solupred, Cortancyl, Celestene, Quenacort, Diprostene: these drugs, based on cortisone, have been out of stock in many pharmacies for several weeks.
Strong supply tensions for prednisone (Solupred) and prednisolone (Cortancyl) specialties
???? Prioritize the prescription of prednisone and prednisolone when their use is medically essential and without alternatives
?? https://t.co/2F7mp7f8tQ pic.twitter.com/dLSlHtcmDd
—ANSM (@ansm) May 7, 2019
Our colleagues fromEuropean 1 tried the experiment in the center of Paris, Wednesday, May 22: out of about twenty pharmacies, none had cortisone. The ANSM published a press release on this subject on May 7: it recognizes supply difficulties for certain corticosteroid drugs. Two days later, manufacturers were summoned to present to the ANSM “their actions to ensure a sustainable and secure supply”. Pending a return to normal, the agency asks doctors to limit the prescription of these drugs to cases where they are essential and where there are no alternatives.
A petition sent to Agnès Buzyn
Agnès Buzyn: Give us back the cortisone before hundreds of thousands of patients suffer from it – Sign the petition! https://t.co/t4sLAnav4X via @ChangeFrance
— francis berenbaum (@Larhumato) May 22, 2019
For doctors, this situation is not tolerable. Francis Berenbaum, head of the rheumatology department at Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris, launched an online petition, titled “Give us cortisone again before hundreds of thousands of patients suffer from it“. It was sent to the Minister of Health, Wednesday, May 22. According to him, manufacturers have their share of responsibility for stock shortages: “corticosteroids are drugs that cost nothing, explains the doctor on France Info. The laboratories which market them do not have a great interest in investing so that there is a follow-up and a rapid replenishment of these specialties”. For their part, the laboratories affirm that the situation is linked to production delays.
essential drugs
Cortisone is one of the corticosteroids and helps treat inflammatory pain, certain allergies and autoimmune disorders. It is also used to treat bronchial or lung diseases such as asthma. For all these patients, stopping treatment can have serious consequences. For example, if a patient with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease, stops taking cortisone, he risks having an inflammatory attack again: red patches, called erythema, will appear on his skin. In the worst cases, flare-ups can affect vital organs such as the brain or kidneys and lead to kidney failure or even death.
Cortisone is not the first drug out of stock in France. In October 2018, a collective of Parkinson’s patients was already reporting shortages of their treatments. In 2017, 530 medicines were out of stock in the country, 30% more than the previous year.
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