Drug shortages: who is responsible?

Year-end drug shortages in France are nothing new for pharmacies. They were linked to the quotas that the pharmaceutical laboratories set themselves, because a sales surplus led to a risk of price reduction by the French pharmaco-economic authorities. The price of the drug being generally low in France compared to its European neighbors, if there was a choice to be made in the management of stock by the manufacturers, we were also not privileged…

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Almost doubling between 2018 and 2019, these shortages have seen other causes accumulate, such as relocation raw materials outside Europe which weakens the manufacturing and distribution chain.

Always with a view to cost rationalization, just-in-time production, makes it difficult to anticipate an increase in demand. And yet, this demand is increasing, worldwide and in France. On a global scale, let’s mention China, which wants to catch up in terms of public health. On a national scale, let us mention the epidemic of Covid-19 which, since 2020, has had consequences on the consumption of paracetamol (largely produced in China).

Other drugs that are difficult to obtain, antibioticsvery prescribed with the resurgence of respiratory infections.

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Shouldn’t we put the industrial system back on track, and seek officinal preparations which would be more reactive to unforeseen events and would produce the quantities just needed. This seems to be the option chosen by theNational Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM)which at the end of December, in order to make up for the lack ofamoxicillinan antibiotic out of stock in many pharmacies, has authorized around forty pharmacies to manufacture capsules of this drug.