Many drugs are becoming increasingly difficult to find in France. Health Minister Agnès Buzyn announced the launch of a plan to combat this shortage by the end of June.
Anti-migraine, antibiotics, cortisone… One in four French people has already faced a shortage of medicines in recent months. 25% of respondents to the survey of France Assos Health and of theBVA institute have already been refused delivery of a drug or vaccine due to a shortage. Faced with this situation, Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Solidarity and Health, announced the launch of a plan to combat the shortage.
“The problem of drug shortages is real in our country,” she explained during the session of questions to the government at the National Assembly. Between 2008 and 2018, almost twenty times as many shortages were reported. To take things in hand, a “plan is being finalized and should be presented by the end of June”, she announced. The Minister then detailed that it should revolve around three axes: “transparency and information for the public and professionals”, “action on the drug production circuit” and finally “strengthening of international co-ordination”.
Which drugs are affected by this stock shortage?
In itself, this stock shortage is not recent since it is the accumulation of several shortages that has led to this worrying situation. Today, several everyday drugs are concerned. Cortisone, eye drops, hypotensives and antibiotics… but also more worrying drugs, such as cancer drugs and vaccines. The Order considers that there is a supply disruption each time a pharmacy or the pharmacy of a health establishment “is unable to dispense a drug to a patient within 72 hours”.
The cause of these shortages is different depending on the case. This can be a supply problem or a lack of raw materials. Indeed, the shortage of corticosteroids comes from there: the factory which manufactures them in Lille encountered difficulties in January, which led to the recent shortage.
According to European 1, which conducted the survey, in 80% of cases of shortage, it is a question of money. Indeed, in France, our drugs are reimbursed by Social Security, but this would have consequences: prices would often be lowered so that Social Security would have to reimburse less. “This is not to the taste of the industrialists […] who therefore prefer to sell to other countries than to France”, stipulate our colleagues, recalling that among our German or Italian neighbors, certain drugs are sold 2 or 3 times more expensive.
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