2023-10-03 17:16:30
The Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, strongly refuted this Tuesday any lack of foresight regarding preventive treatment against bronchiolitis in infants, the subject of greater enthusiasm than anticipated, and he deplored a “complaint of drama” coming from certain opponents.
“Four countries in the world have ordered Beyfortus: France, Spain, the United States and Germany. Last March, a laboratory came to see my predecessor, François Braun, offered him a treatment which had not been is not subject to any authorization, and François Braun had the courage, took the risk of ordering doses”he said to MP Martine Etienne (LFI, Nupes), who criticized the government for not having “once again nothing anticipated”, during the questions to the government session at the National Assembly. And to add: “If this drug had not obtained authorizations, what would you say about the fact that doses were being destroyed?”.
Prioritized newborns in maternity wards
“The learned societies said: +It will be a new product, so probably 10% support+”, added Aurélien Rousseau. His ministry has ordered for a 30% uptake rate, or 200,000 doses, he said. “Unlike you, Madam, I find it fantastic news that in maternity wards we have a never-before-seen membership rate, between 60 and 80%. My responsibility, and I assume it, is to protect the most at risk infants, those who are a few days or weeks old, so yes we favor doses of 50 mg of Beyfortus in maternity wards”he said.
“Rather than complaining about the tragedy, we are working for progress. The Prime Minister (Elisabeth Borne), the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron) and I, we are fighting every day to obtain more doses and so that France is, as I am sure it will be, the country which will have the greatest coverage of Beyfortus in the world”concluded Aurélien Rousseau.
Faced with higher-than-anticipated demand for Beyfortus (developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca), health authorities announced last week that they would interrupt pharmacy deliveries of this monoclonal antibody aimed at protecting babies against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), main cause of bronchiolitis. The ministry has reserved the lowest dosage (50 mg) for newborns in the maternity ward before their discharge and for infants less than one month old in hospital.
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