Drug shortage: eleven pharmaceutical laboratories sanctioned

Not a day goes by without Yorick Berger, secretary general of the Paris Pharmacists’ Union, being confronted with the problem of drug shortages. According to him, the missing drugs represent more than 1,000 references. “It goes out faster than it goes in”he said. The pharmacist also points out risks for the patient whose treatment is interrupted.

The French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) has just imposed more than 8 million euros in fines on eleven laboratories, including Sanofi. Nathalie Cautinet, a health economist, does not believe that sanctions on insufficient stocks in laboratories will put an end to the problem: “It’s not just a question of having stocks, but also of active ingredients, of having enough factories to supply the demand”she points out.