2024-01-19 16:48:31
This is bad news for the health of the French at a time when medical coverage is being debated. Pharmacy closures in France accelerated in 2023, with a decrease of 60% compared to the previous year, reports the profession’s observatory, GERS, whose conclusions are taken up by The echoes on January 18. This represents one pharmacy closure per working day. At the end of the year, the total number of pharmacies fell below the 20,000 mark, with only 19,966 pharmacies remaining, almost 2,000 fewer than ten years ago.
This decrease is not uniform in all regions of France. Some, such as Alsace, have managed to stabilize the number of pharmacies over the last decade, while other regions, such as the Center and the West, have experienced a significant decline in their network of pharmacies. The southern regions (PACA and Languedoc-Roussillon) have seen around 5% of their pharmacies disappear in ten years.
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Sales taking off
However, these closures come at a time when the pharmaceutical sector is experiencing significant growth. The sector’s turnover has increased by 23% over the last three years, reaching 44 billion euros in 2023.. However, this upward trend is mainly driven by prescription drugs, which account for 80% of the total growth. Sales of reimbursable medicines also increased by 7.5% in value, but decreased by 3% in volume. To this must be added cosmetics and food supplements, sales of which have soared in recent years.
Unfortunately, despite a growing sector, pharmacies are struggling to recruit. Pharmacies are in fact facing a serious shortage of staff. The fault lies with the ever-decreasing number of pharmacy students, with young people seeming to abandon this profession. The Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF) estimated last October that there was a shortage of around 10% of staff in community pharmacies. According to her, 15,000 positions for pharmacists, assistant pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are currently vacant.
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