why are there always drug shortages in pharmacies?

It’s a now sadly commonplace scene in pharmacies: customers with a prescription for an antibiotic out of stock. As in winter 2022, finding amoxicillin is an obstacle course. The Ministry of Health accuses large pharmacies of stockpiling. “The minister says that there are stocks and that they are in the laboratories. We tell them: release these stocks. There are no other solutions”reacts Valérie Ollier de Lecluse, pharmacist in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).

The problem of old antibiotics

This antibiotic is just one example of a deal breaker. More than 3,700 were reported last year, often due to production problems. For example, that of old antibiotics, but still widely used. “Prices have fallen significantly on these molecules. So the large pharmaceutical laboratories no longer want to produce them, they prefer innovative molecules”, explains economist Nathalie Coutinet. Among the advanced solutions, productions repatriated to Europe.