Shortages continue to plague pharmacies across France. Some drugs are more affected than others, such as amoxicillin or paracetamol. Overall, all molecules are concerned, as the president of the Union of Pharmacists’ Unions Pierre-Olivier Variot told our colleagues from the Express. Another element that is even more worrying: the shortage is going from bad to worse. Indeed, the number of medicines tending to go missing has doubled during the past year.
The cause of these shortages would lie in the famous triple epidemic which ravaged France this winter. Between Covid, influenza and bronchiolitis, the consumption of paracetamol increased by 13%, an increase which had not been anticipated by producers in the sector. Another problem is revealed: that of dependence on the global pharmaceutical market, which is regularly disrupted by various international crises, the pandemic being here only one example among others.
Faced with supply problems, some solutions are available to the French. Substituting one drug for another is the most common, but in the long run, it only shifts the problem. Another solution would be to increase the selling price of these substances, which would make France much more attractive for health manufacturers, who prefer, in a situation of shortage, to supply some of our neighbors who resell at a higher price.
Elisabeth Borne has therefore commissioned 6 experts from the sector to find solutions and alternative operations for our system of regulation and financing of health products. Find below 5 possible avenues, according to Capital.
