Pharmacies face a chronic lack of certain molecules. The latest is Ventolin, a medication used against asthma, in the height of allergy season.
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This is the second break of spring. Since the first week of June, Ventolin has been in short supply in many pharmacies. Wednesday June 12, Bruno Maleine, who manages a pharmacy in Villiers-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), notes that this bronchodilator drug used to fight asthma, a respiratory disease which affects around 4 million French people according to the ‘Inserm, “is unavailable to everyone [ses] suppliers”. And “when there is some, it is limited”annoys Fabrice Camaïoni, vice-president of the Federation of Community Pharmacists (FSPF). “We are not receiving the requested quantities, which is very difficult for us and our patients to manage.”
In the absence of Ventolin, the pharmacist would like to direct asthmatic patients towards alternatives. But “by domino effect, these drugs are no longer available either”, regrets Fabrice Camaïoni. This lack of Ventolin is of particular concern to pharmacists, in the midst of an allergy period. Almost all of France is at high risk (except Finistère) from grass pollen, “which are very abundant in the air and seriously bother allergy sufferers in the month of June”notes the National Aerobiological Surveillance Network (RNSA) in its latest bulletin.
However, underlines Inserm, allergies are a risk factor for asthma attacks. This is why Patrick Raimond, pharmacist in Bouches-du-Rhône, recommends to his asthmatic patients “to check their stock, do not throw away boxes that have expired and have been kept in good conditions”. If not, he advises calling your doctor “to see if an alternative treatment is possible”.
How is it that Ventolin, the trade name of salbutamol, is in short supply? The drug has however been included in the list of drugs of major therapeutic interest, set up by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), which should ensure a “minimum safety stock” of four months.
Contacted by franceinfo, the ANSM claims to monitor “closely the evolution of this situation”explained in part “by an increase in demand” Ventolin and Seretide, another medicine used for asthma. She also says she demanded “management measures (…) to laboratories marketing these drugs in order to secure the situation in the city and preserve available stocks”.
For its part, the GSK laboratory, which produces Ventolin, assures franceinfo that “significant volumes” were sent to the French market, which “should allow a return to a situation without tensions in the coming days”. The laboratory adds that a “second site within the production network in Spain will provide reinforcement” For “increase the volumes placed on the market in the coming weeks”. The British pharmaceutical group specifies that this is “a transfer of stock initially intended for another country which no longer needs it, and not an increase in production”.
In addition to these economic explanations, pharmacists point to another explanation: the price of medicines, “much lower in France than among our European neighbors”. “For example, Ventolin is sold for 4.6 euros” in France, “compared to 9.4 euros in Germany”, says Stéphane Pichon. According to him, this drug is not the only one affected. And this low price policy would lead manufacturers to prefer other European countries, to the detriment of the French market.
Ventolin is not the only molecule to be rare in pharmacies. In recent years, shortages have increased, so much so that in 2023, nearly 5,000 medicines have been reported as “out of stock” or at “risk of shortage” by the ANSM, compared to 3,761 in 2022 and 2,160 the previous year. This June, amoxicillin, the most prescribed antibiotic for children, is announced as being in “supply shortage” since January 2024 by the ANSM. The same goes for Ozempic and Trulicity, latest generation anti-diabetics, or other anti-cancer drugs, less known to the general public, but essential for patients.
Result: pharmacies receive these molecules “sparingly”deplores Stéphane Pichon, president of the Council of the Order of Pharmacists in Corsica and in the Paca region, who regrets that these situations create “tension at the counter”.
“Our shelves are empty. Whether it is marked ‘out of stock’ or ‘supply tensions’, the result is the same, ultimately, the patient does not have their box.”
Fabrice Camaïoni, vice-president of the Federation of Community Pharmacistsat franceinfo
In this case, the pharmacist must find alternatives to the treatment prescribed by the doctor, either by offering a similar molecule, or by calling the practitioner directly, which “is very time consuming”. “We spend between 10 and 12 hours a week trying to find these missing drugs”he believes.
These spring tensions make us fear the worst for the fall and the return of winter epidemics. “You get used to difficult situations.”recognizes Bruno Maleine, fatalist. “But we will still have to be very careful, because what we put in place to help patients is a fragile balance.”