The price of amoxicillin will increase by 10% on October 1, this is one of the measures taken by the government to encourage laboratories to produce more and fight against exploding drug shortages.
Nearly four in ten French people have been faced with a shortage of medicines this year. This situation is worsening due to increased demands linked to epidemics, the aging of the population and the lack of supply as inflation inflates costs.
>> Drug shortages: how did we get here?
This lack can strike us all, because it concerns all kinds of medications. The Medicines Safety Agency recorded more than 3,700 out of stock or at risk of shortage last year, which is almost twice as many as the previous year. This mainly concerns inexpensive drugs, which have been on the market for a long time. For example, we find antibiotics, especially those given to children, anticancer drugs, antidiabetic drugs, drugs against cardiac arrhythmia and even antiepileptic drugs.
Patrick Baudru suffers from this neurological disease. The situation can become dramatic if he cannot find his medicine: “It happened to me that I was prescribed a medication that was no longer available.” In this case, pharmacists offer a generic, but, as Patrick Baudru points out, “in the case of epilepsy, the slightest change in treatment can have a very strong impact”. According to him, there are cases “people who have had accidents, hospitalizations, following problems with unavailable medications”.
20 cents more for a box of amoxicillin
To resolve this shortage of drugs, the government has several objectives: produce more by relocating part of the production of some of them to France, sell antibiotics in tension by the unit or even impose tests on doctors before they prescribe certain antibiotics.
And to encourage manufacturers to produce drugs that earn them little, in particular because of inflation in the cost of raw materials, the government had the idea of increasing the price of a very popular antibiotic by 10%: amoxicillin. HAS From October 1, the patient will pay around 20 cents more for a box. In exchange, manufacturers undertake to produce more and stock up. “I believe that what the government wanted to send was to finally make a clear link between prices, the economic viability of the drug and the availability of the product”reacts the boss of the French laboratory Biogaran Jérome Wirotius, seduced by this market.
>> INFO FRANCEINFO. Drug shortages: the government will make it compulsory to sell certain antibiotics individually that are out of stock
Other drugs could increase at the request of manufacturers, which revolts patient representatives like Catherine Simonin, member of France Assoc Santé and the league against cancer. For her this solution is ineffective and scandalous: “We are very surprised by this solution, it was taken in Germany, Spain and Italy, and they faced the same shortages as France”, she laments. Furthermore, still according to Catherine Simonin“this summer there were 500,000 euros in fines imposed on three manufacturers producing amoxicillin. Today we are increasing prices to give them more profits so that they apply the rule”.
“It’s like if on the road you run a red light, you get a fine and they’re going to pay you for obeying red lights in the future.”
Catherine Simoninat franceinfo
To avoid these shortages, we must produce more. Relocating the production of a few drugs to France will not be enough, according to the co-founder of the observatory for transparency in drug policies, Pauline Londeix. She would like the State to take over when a laboratory stops producing an essential drug. “We understand very well that manufacturers have other strategic choices than producing amoxicillin which according to them does not earn them enough. In this case there must be public production.”
“If [ces médicaments] are not profitable enough from the point of view of manufacturers and the population needs them, it is up to the public sector to produce them.”
Pauline Londeixat franceinfo
The government may have heard these arguments, since this is part of its anti-shortage plan: entrusting the public sector with the manufacture of a drug in shortage, this is already the case for curare produced by the hospital pharmacy of hospitals in Paris.
In fact this plan takes up several proposals from a senatorial report, co-written by the centrist Sonia de la Provoté. “We have a pilot problem on the plane”explains the one who believes that the State must not let the National Medicines Safety Agency manage these shortages alone. “We must strengthen the means of control of the ANSM, and we need management at the level of the Prime Minister, because between economic and health budgets, we are not sure that all of this works.” The senator is also calling for a European pilot to act as sentry. A bit like during the Covid crisis, a task force which would be capable of securing the production and distribution of 200 to 300 medicines considered essential for all Europeans.