the Minister of Health, François Braun, calls for a European policy

The shortage of certain drugs requires a European response, said the Minister of Health, guest of CNews on Wednesday May 10. “At some point, you have to have a French policy of sovereignty (…), but also a European policy”, judged François Braun. France, like other European countries, has known for months tensions on the stocks of several drugs, in particular intended for children. Pediatricians from several EU states again alerted, at the beginning of May, to a situation which puts “in danger” the health of the youngest, in an open letter addressed to their respective ministers.

Pharmaceutical companies question a policy of insufficient prices to guarantee their production of these treatments. “Unfortunately, this is the explanation systematically given by the laboratories”lamented François Braun.

The Minister of Health has worked with his counterparts on the need for “more transparency required from pharmaceutical laboratories on their production, European solidarity when someone has stocks and can help those who do not have any, and the drawing up of a European list of these essential medicines, so that the ‘we guarantee their production for us in France, but also in Europe“. Paris supports, together with 18 other European capitals, a Belgian proposal on a European law on drug shortages.