The one who is also the mother of a 6-year-old boy denounced in “C à vous” the out of stock of Sabril, an antiepileptic produced by Sanofi that her son needs.
“What you don’t want when you have an epileptic child is seizures. These are seizures that eat up the brain, which eat away at it (…) and in the most serious cases, it’s children who can die!” Journalist Giulia Foïs launched the alert on the shortage of Sabril, an antiepileptic drug, on the set of “C à vous” on France 5, Thursday, May 11.
The latter is the mother of Isaac, 6 years old, suffering from epilepsy and who must take four medications every day, including Sabril, to avoid seizures. However, the mother of the family only has three boxes of the precious medicine left, instead of the five necessary to ensure the treatment of her son until the end of July, when pharmacies estimate that they will have stocks again. A distressing situation for this mother, as for other patients and relatives of patients. In fact, there is no “no credits” to Sabril and substitute drugs require withdrawal during “six to ten weeks” to accustom the brain to the new molecule, during which crises take place, she assures France 5.
A very concentrated production
A few days earlier, she had already challenged Sanofi, the laboratory that manufactures the drug, on Twitter. The Sabril “is used in addition to conventional treatments for epilepsy, when these fail to prevent the onset of seizures”details the Vidal.
“The concern is when production is concentrated in the hands of a single producer, as soon as there is a larger supply from another country or stocks have not been properly assessed, there may be have breakups”explained Wednesday on franceinfo Pauline Londeix, co-founder of the Observatory of transparency in drug policies.
A list of essential medicines
Faced with shortages of Sabril and other drugs, the Minister of Health, François Braun, recalled on CNews on Wednesday that a list of essential drugs was being drawn up. This list, which currently includes 280 drugs, is expected in June. These include insulin, various anti-inflammatories, amoxicillin, paracetamol and the antiepileptic Sabril, said the minister. Objective: to identify the points of manufacture of these drugs in order to ensure that they are “always available”.
Beyond this list, François Braun called for a “European policy”while the Commission pis also reviewing the drawing up of a list of essential medicines, which could then serve as the basis for an obligation for laboratories to build up stocks.
Leem, the French pharmaceutical industry lobby, has also called on the government to appoint a high commissioner for medicines, deeming it urgent to establish centralized management in the face of increasing shortages of medicines.