Health authorities will never repeat it enough: antibiotics are not automatic! While France is encountering supply difficulties for certain drugs, in particular amoxicillin, the Directorate General for Health (DGS) took advantage of a press briefing on the subject, Friday, November 18, to recall that antibiotics are useless in case of viral infection. The challenge: to make patients responsible for their consumption, while France is the fourth European prescriber of antibiotics.
If this “citizen call” can save a few boxes, it will not be enough to fill the shelves of pharmacies. Because the problem is largely upstream, on the production side. “Between January and October 2022, France consumed around 40 million boxes of amoxicillin. However, we were more at 30 million boxes over the previous two years, due to the Covid crisis”, indicates the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM).
Manufacturers have already started to correct the situation, but the results should only be visible in “a few weeks or even a few months”until the production lines are restarted. “These strong supply tensions are not only found in France but at European level, and this is unfortunately expected to last until March 2023”, notify the agency.
Exports suspended
In the meantime, several « actions » have been undertaken by the French authorities to “minimize the consequences of ruptures “. Exports of amoxicillin have been suspended, and quota measures have been taken in order to reserve stocks for patients who need it, in particular children, this antibiotic being one of those most prescribed to them in case bacterial infection (certain ear infections for example).
These quotas also concern other drugs such as paracetamol, whose supply difficulties, in particular in its pediatric form, have been in the news for several months. “The trend is nevertheless improving”underlined the ANSM, where one ensures “remain extremely mobilized and vigilant”.
While shortage alerts have multiplied in recent months, the authorities want to be reassuring: “If the risks of rupture are increasing, it is also because manufacturers report them more, which is a good thing because it allows us to anticipate and improve the availability of certain drugs”, we explain to the DGS. Since 2016, manufacturers have had a legal obligation to declare any supply problem concerning so-called medicinal products as soon as possible. “of major therapeutic interest”. They are also required, since September 2021, to build up stocks for two months (or even four for certain products). These are all measures that should avoid running out of fuel.
The challenge of relocation
But until when ? In a press release published on November 18, the Observatory of Transparency in Medicines Policies (OTMeds) regrets the authorities’ lack of anticipation. “The tensions and shortages are partly due to an increase in demand which was foreseeable given the persistence of Covid and the prevalence of seasonal epidemics which can generate bacterial infections. »deplores the organization, considering that the solutions deployed “do not attack the structural causes”.
“The availability of medicines is a priority for the health authorities”, replies the DGS, which sees proof of this in the incentive schemes put in place in recent months to relocate the production of certain drugs and get out of extreme dependence on Asian countries, providers of a large part of the raw materials. Still insufficient according to the OTMeds, for which « il necessary to remove essential drugs from (the) market logic and to set up health planning”. A change of model which would consist in entrusting the production of medicines to public actors, coordinated at European level.