With the rush of recent days – accentuated by Emmanuel Macron’s call on social networks to be tested for the holidays – most pharmacies have been robbed. The French favor these self-tests, sold for just over five euros a box, against 25 euros for a classic antigen. According to the trade union, pharmacies have recently sold up to 80,000 per day, twice as many as last spring. But now, with the shortage, delivery times are getting longer. According to Biosynex, the main French manufacturer of self-tests, a pharmacy must now wait eight days before being delivered, as the demand is high. Its main competitor, the American Innova Medical, also confirms to be overwhelmed, he had simply not anticipated such a rush.
Even if they are a little taken aback, these manufacturers have some experience with just-in-time production. Last April, Biosynex had more than doubled its workforce after obtaining approval for its self-tests in several European markets, including France. Tents had even been set up on its Alsatian site, to accommodate new production lines. Californian Innova Medical has to import its self-tests from the United States and China, then assemble and pack them in France, so it is more dependent on logistics constraints. But it too will grow, it has chosen to settle in Pithiviers in the Loiret, to produce up to 1.2 million Covid tests there per day.
And there is another player in this market, it’s Boiron. The Lyon homeopathic specialist already sells 200,000 nasal self-tests per day to its network of pharmacies, and will lend a hand to its Breton partner NG Biotech to assemble a few thousand additional kits every day.
As these self-tests are medical devices, only pharmacies can sell them, which infuriates the major retailers. We heard Michel-Edouard Leclerc on Franceinfo, Thursday, December 23, deploring this ban, while in Germany or Switzerland, distributors can offer it, often cheaper. On Twitter, his competitor from Système U, Dominique Schelcher, is surprised that these self-tests, which have become commonplace, cannot be sold in supermarkets in the same way as masks. While waiting for the legislation to evolve, the major brands are standing by, most have already made stocks, just in case.