While France has suffered for months from a shortage of drugs, which concerns in particular the pediatric form – and widely prescribed – of the antibiotic amoxicillin, the Ministries of Health and Industry will operate price increases. They will be made “in return for industrial commitments on securing the supply of the French market”, they indicated this Friday, February 3 in a joint press release. The ministries have also announced a moratorium on price reductions for generics considered strategic from an industrial and health perspective.
These measures had been demanded for several weeks by generic drug manufacturers, against the social security budget. They consider French prices too low to allow them to continue selling in France, or even to maintain their production. Last week, manufacturers, but also the main pharmacists’ unions, had boycotted discussions at the Ministry of Health, relating precisely to further price reductions.
By the end of May, a list of strategic drugs will be established, the government also said. The National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) will also be responsible for establishing a plan for preparing for winter epidemics (securing stocks, improving the availability of data). Finally, within three months, a “white drug plan” that can be activated in the event of an exceptional situation will be prepared.
“Never again”
The Minister of Health, François Braun, promised Friday the “return to a normal situation within two weeks”, at the microphone ofEuropean 1. “Yesterday evening, I met with the Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, the entire sector […] to say: ‘Never again!’, this shortage of essential medicines during a winter period”, insisted the minister.
“We are going to come back in the next two weeks to a month of additional stock of amoxicillin, he said, confirming the upcoming delivery to pharmacies of one million bottles of this antibiotic. We have recovered stocks of paracetamol , so we are out of this crisis period in the next two weeks.”
These future deliveries are explained, according to him, by “the work done by the manufacturers, who have activated the entire production chain”. “Pharmacists will receive 750,000 additional boxes of amoxicillin delivered by Biogaran from February 6, the generics laboratory told AFP. In total for the month of February, we will distribute 1,090,000 boxes over three references. “