Par Thibaud Delafosse
Published on
See my news
Since the end of January 2023, Maxime and his parents live a “hellish, stressful and exhausting” daily life. The young 15 year old college studentwho lives in Moyon Villages (Manche), suffers from cystic fibrosis. A rare genetic disease, which obstructs the digestive and respiratory tracts, discovered at birth.
His treatment requires him to take ten drugs a day. But, at the beginning of the year, one of his growth hormones breaks down completely. “We mightn’t find it anywhere. She was substituted by another growth hormone, ”says her mother, Amélie Lefranc.
Kilometers traveled
Without a growth hormone, Maxime simply mightn’t grow taller. “He would keep his current size, 1m47”, continues his mother. However, the growth hormone in turn falls into partial rupture.
Amélie Lefranc and her companion, Anthony Crocquevieille, have to travel kilometers to find, in February then in March, a pharmacy able to provide them with a box of the medicine. “We also called, regularly, regarding fifteen pharmacies. It’s not easy to manage, when you’re both working. »
A big plan
At the microphone of BFM TV, this Monday morning, François Braun announced the implementation of “a big plan” to no longer find themselves in shortage of drugs. This plan has four steps. First of them: to determine the essential/critical drugs, “which no one can do without”. This list should be finalized in May. Then, it will be necessary to define all the points of manufacture of the drug, from the active ingredient to the putting in bottles and tablets, to “control the production chain”. The long-term challenge is to repatriate the active ingredients of essential drugs to France and Europe. Third step: stock up on certain medications, if necessary. And the last: in the event of an unexpected rupture, “put in place a white drug plan”.
A teenager “abandoned” by medicine
Besides this growth hormone, the family has all the difficulty in the world to get their hands on a steroid anti-inflammatory and sodium chloride. For the latter, there will not be any before the end of the year.
The anti-inflammatory, which he has been taking for four years, is the only treatment that works on Maxime. Before that, he was operated on every year. He had to breathe through his mouth. For a non-sick person, it was like having a clamp on the nose all the time.
Maxime, he feels abandoned by medicine. He asks himself questions, he wants to understand “why we can’t treat him”. “I can die overnight because I can’t get the necessary medicine. It’s a great stress, ”despairs the teenager who dreams of being a municipal police officer.
To obtain an explanation, he wrote a letter in February to health Minister, Francois Braun. A call for help relayed by many media, national and local. No later than the morning of this Monday, April 3, 2023on BFM TV. Receiving François Braun, the journalist Apolline de Malherbe broadcasts Maxime’s testimony to launch her interview.
An exchange with the ministry
The minister who “hears the anguish” assures, in particular, “that a very precise answer” will be given to Maxime. A few hours later, Amélie Lefranc exchanged by telephone with the ministry, for the second time.
If this excludes a meeting with the minister, to the great regret of the parents, some answers are provided. “We were told that there was no total shortage, but a lot of tension, that the situation would gradually return to normal. “Insufficient for Maxime, who would have preferred to have” the real reasons for the break-ups “.
“The worst winter”
These drug shortages have been felt since the end of 2022 in all pharmacies in France. “In ten years in the business, this is the worst winter I’ve known,” sums up a pharmacist from Saint-Lô, insisting that the laboratories are tight.
We had tensions on very common molecules, in particular on amoxicillin, the most prescribed antibiotic in France. Even Doliprane experienced supply tensions!
For pharmacists, it is impossible to stockpile medicines for all families. “While we have always worked with stocks, this makes our working conditions more stressful. When the drugs arrive, it is in small quantities. And then we were often presented with a fait accompli when there was a breakup, ”breathes a professional from Valognes.
Faced with this, the pharmacies helped each other all winter. “We also directly call the laboratories or the wholesalers dispatchers, our two delivery streams, ”adds the Valognese, which explains this shortage by a big demand. Quotas even had to be put in place by wholesalers.
The hope is there
Another solution to enable prescriptions to be met: exchange with the doctors who prescribe the drugs, even if for certain pathologies it is complicated to replace a molecule. “The epidemic period has passed, the situation should improve”, hopes a pharmacist from Cherbourg.
A hope shared by Maxime and his parents, surrounded by relatives on whom they can rely. Even if concern, of course, animates them. “We wonder if we will not run out of other drugs. There are far too many shortcomings. If we can’t find any more corticosteroids, for example, Maxime’s hours will be counted. It would be a disaster for him. »
A double fight to lead, for them as for all the patients of France.
Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.
