Drug shortages, pharmacy closures, increase in fees… Why pharmacists are on strike on Thursday

Up to 90% of pharmacies could be closed on Thursday, according to the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions (USPO).

“Closed doors” day. Many pharmacists are on strike on Thursday, May 30, at the call of the two main unions in the profession. The Federation of Community Pharmacists (FSPF) and the Union of Community Pharmacists Unions (USPO) have filed a notice. Pharmaceutical deserts, drug shortages or even increased fees: the demands are numerous.

While around thirty rallies are planned across France, including a demonstration in Paris which will start at 4 p.m. between the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Ministry of the Economythere mobilization promises to be massive. Up to 90% of pharmacies could be closed, according to figures communicated by the USPO to franceinfo. VSSome pharmacies will nevertheless be requisitioned by the authorities and will therefore remain open. Franceinfo takes stock of the reasons for this mobilization.

Challenge the government on the shortage of medicines

Pharmacists will also march in the streets to denounce “there persistence of shortages that pharmacists experience on a daily basis, to the detriment of their patients, who are the first to be penalized”, according to the USPO and FSPF. In 2023, nearly 5,000 medicines were reported as “out of stock” or at “risk of shortage” by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM), compared to 3,761 in 2022 and 2,160 the previous year. This particularly concerned amoxicillin, anti-cancer treatments and insulin.

At the same time, pharmacists are concerned about deregulation of the medicines market and “the online sale of medicines by commercial platforms with remote stocks”explain the unions. “Promoting the sale of medicines on the internet with remote stock is an attack on the pharmaceutical network and the destruction of the network (…) We are going to be in a price race and we are going to make medicine a consumer good and more care “, alerts the president of the USPO, Pierre-Olivier Variot, to France 3.

Warning about pharmaceutical deserts

“The closures of pharmacies in fragile territories jeopardize access to care for many communities., alert the unions in their call for mobilization. According to them, nearly 2,000 pharmacies have closed in ten years, bringing their total number to around 20,000 pharmacies in 2024.

“We see the phenomenon of the pharmacist who retires without having sold his pharmacy or the pharmacist in liquidation. We did not see that before,” explain Marie Halm-Bongard, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of Burgundy (FSPF), on France 3. This claim echoes in particular a report from the Court of Auditors (PDF) published in May, which states that “the French are finding it increasingly difficult to access primary care.”

Request an increase in their fees

While negotiations with Health Insurance on the revaluation of their fees are underway, pharmacists are demanding “a significant revaluation” of their remuneration from 2025. If pharmacists are paid on drug margins or on call, a significant part of their salary depends on fees. These amounts are paid by Health Insurance for each sale of medicine and depend on the prescription.

The unions evoke a “general dissatisfaction of these health professionals with the economic difficulties they have been facing for almost three years”. The various unions mobilized also demand a “reform of the 3rd cycle of pharmaceutical studies”.

Questioned Tuesday in the National Assembly on the pharmacists’ strike, Frédéric Valletoux, Minister for Health and Prevention, explained that “the remuneration of pharmacists amounted to 7.3 billion euros in 2023, this has increased by 20% since 2019”. But he also assured that he wanted “listen to them”.