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Health: why such drug shortages?
Health: why such drug shortages? – (France 2)
More than 3,500 drugs are currently out of stock or at risk of being out of stock in France. Among them, many antibiotics.
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. For pharmacists, the problem lies elsewhere. “The minister says that there are stocks, and that they are in the laboratories. We tell him: release these stocks. There are no other solutions“, reacts Valérie Ollier de Lecluse, pharmacist in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).
More than 3,500 ruptures
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, preferring innovative molecules, which are much more expensive, much better reimbursed, and therefore much better paid to the laboratories.“, explains Nathalie Coutinet, economist at Sorbonne Paris Nord University. Among the solutions put forward, production repatriated to Europe.
Among Our sources:
Medicines Safety Agency
Non-exhaustive list.