To combat the drug shortage, the government wants to introduce the obligation to sell certain antibiotics individually, particularly those out of stock.
Some medications will soon be sold individually and no longer in the form of blister packs in boxes. This is one of the measures that the government wants to put in place, according to information from franceinfo on Wednesday September 20. The objective is to avoid waste with these boxes of medicines that are left in a cupboard and which expire.
In France, the sale of individual medications is already possible for antibiotics or analgesics such as morphine. But the executive wants to make it compulsory for certain types of antibiotics in the event of a shortage. “It’s a bit of DIY, but we’ll do it, declares on franceinfo Philippe Besset, president of the federation of pharmaceutical unions of France (FSPF). He estimates that “vs“It’s not a good idea in itself.”.
A very common practice in the United States
This sale of medications individually is a common practice in other countries, particularly in the United States. This of course only concerns medicines in the form of pills or capsules, and not those in the form of cream or syrup. According to health economist Bruno Ventelou, American drugs have been sold individually for more than a century, since the beginnings of the pharmaceutical industry. So much so that patients as well as laboratories and pharmacists have become accustomed to this system.
The laboratories deliver them in bulk to pharmacies and the pharmacist is responsible for packaging them in small bottles. If on the prescription it is written that you need, for example, five tablets, the pharmacist will place five, not one more, in the bottle. Then he will stick a label on it which includes information such as the dosage, the name of the prescribing doctor or the expiration date.
This practice is also common in Anglo-Saxon countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In these countries, private insurers are putting pressure, for economic reasons, to avoid waste and to ensure that medications are prescribed as accurately as possible.
A model unsuitable for the French system?
However, this model is difficult to transpose to France, and this can be explained for several reasons. First of all, quite simply: the packaging of the medicines is not the same. In France, the tablets come in the form of tablets which are also called blisters. The French industry considers that this packaging is safer from a health point of view. To dispense a single medication, the pharmacist must therefore cut the blister and print the information leaflet which is usually found in the medication box.
Another difference with the Anglo-Saxon model: in the United States, pharmacies employ pharmacists specifically responsible for packaging bulk medications, who are not in contact with the customer, explains Guillaume Racle, of the Union of Pharmacists’ Unions. pharmacy. In French pharmacies, these people responsible for preparation do not exist. Transposing the American model would therefore amount, according to Guillaume Racle, to adding an additional workload to pharmacists.