The government wants to reduce antibiotic consumption and shortages. To do this, it plans to make the delivery of antibiotics conditional on the completion of a screening test in pharmacies and to make the individual sale of certain antibiotics out of stock compulsory.
Will the winter of 2023 be as delicate as that of 2022 in terms of the stock of medicines in France? This is the way for the newspaper Les Échos, which estimates that “the sector is recording an increase in the number of risks of supply disruptions or proven disruptions”. Franceinfo also revealed that the government “will thus make the individual distribution of certain antibiotics out of stock compulsory”.
To avoid situations of antibiotics lingering in French people’s cupboards, the executive wants to force pharmacists to deliver their antibiotics to patients one tablet at a time. The method would not be appreciated at all by the profession according to Franceinfo. But for Roland Lescure, Minister of Industry interviewed by Les Échos, “we know well that France remains one of the European countries with the highest consumption of medicines, antibiotics in particular, and that we must act on this aspect.”
Here is the list of antibiotics which are currently out of stock according to the Ansm (National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products) and which could therefore be affected by a unit sale:
Aurélien Rousseau, Minister of Health, had already presented a second measure to combat drug shortages: the possibility for pharmacies to dispense antibiotics without a prescription, provided that the patient first takes a test. Guest of Sud Radio, the minister also revealed that the public hospital could support the manufacture of medicines in the event of shortages: “At the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, there is a huge pharmaceutical establishment, I authorized them to produce medicines also to cope if ever there were shortages.”
