The National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products has fined 11 pharmaceutical companies 8 million euros for low stocks of certain medicines.
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“We have a particularly alarming situation“, worries Alexandre de la Volpilière, interim director general of the ANSM, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products, on franceinfo on Tuesday, September 24. “In 2023, there were more than 5,000 reported drug shortages, which is 30% more than in 2022, six times more than in 2018.”
The ANSM has imposed a fine of 8 million euros spread over 11 pharmaceutical laboratories for insufficient stocks, including and especially safety stocks. These sanctions are part of a context where the law has been tightened in recent years towards pharmaceutical groups to strengthen their obligations in terms of drug stocks. These measures require companies to maintain stocks of two months, or in some cases four months, of drugs of major therapeutic interest. “We know that, regardless of the laboratory or the amounts, the sanctions are not sufficient, recognizes Alexandre de la Volpilière, but this is only one of the levers used, it is not through sanctions that we will succeed in reducing the phenomenon of ruptures, it is one of the tools.”
The Director General of the ANSM, however, wishes to reassure: “For this winter, stocks have been built up, we have a winter plan that was created last year, and that we will launch again this year to prevent shortages of medicines that treat winter illnesses.”