Why are medications not sold individually in our pharmacies?

Martin Ducret, doctor and journalist at “Quotidien du Médecin”, explains to us why France, unlike certain countries, has still not converted to the delivery of medications individually.

The sale of medications individually in pharmacies is a common practice in several countries such as Canada, the United States or the Netherlands, but not in France. Martin Ducret’s explanations

franceinfo: France, unlike certain countries, still does not sell medicines individually?

Martin Ducret: Yes, selling medications individually in pharmacies, with exactly the necessary number of tablets prescribed by the doctor – instead of the entire box – seems, on paper, obvious for several reasons.

First, from an ecological point of view, it would avoid waste; concerning reimbursed medicines, it would save money for Social Security, then it would limit the risk of self-medication – that is to say the inappropriate consumption of the famous boxes lying around in our cupboards – and finally, it would reduce the risk of drug shortages, which we have been facing for several winters.

Moreover, in the event of a shortage, the State has made unit delivery compulsory, but only for certain drugs?

Yes, the General Directorate of Health, via the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS), has implemented this obligation for certain antibiotics in supply shortage. For example, in the event of a shortage of amoxicillin this winter, by ministerial decree, the state will force pharmacists to sell it individually.

You should also know that certain medications, called “narcotics”, such as morphine, are required to be dispensed with the exact number of tablets and for a limited duration, due to the risk of abuse, dependence or misuse. diverted from this type of product.

Why is unit sales, if possible with narcotics and certain antibiotics, not generalized to all medicines, as is the case in other countries?

Because the drug distribution system in our pharmacies is not the same as abroad. In the United States, for example, pharmaceutical laboratories deliver in bulk to pharmacies, and the latter must package the necessary quantities in small bottles, and affix a label with the information (dosage, expiration date, etc.)

In France, we work by box of medicine, and each of them has a unique computer code to allow its identity to be verified by scanning, this is what we call serialization.

“This obligation of traceability, associated with limits on cost and human resources, does not allow pharmacists to generalize single-unit dispensing”explains Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of Community Pharmacists Unions (USPO). To do this, the entire drug distribution system, both on the industrial side and that of pharmacies, would need to be rethought and modified.