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The French brought back an average of two boxes of unused medicines to the pharmacy in 2023, a figure that has fallen slightly, as a result of the drop in medicine sales, shortages and better compliance with treatments, Cyclamed said on Friday.
The quantity of unused medicines recovered in the 20,500 community pharmacies is decreasing, around 8,500 tonnes in 2023 compared to 9,415 tonnes in 2022, explains Cyclamed, an organization which collects and recycles medicines that have expired or are not used by patients.
This corresponds to two boxes per inhabitant in 2023 compared to the equivalent of 2.3 boxes reported a year earlier.
Cyclamed highlights a decrease of around 1% on average in sales of medicines in number of boxes each year for 20 years and patients who “demonstrate better compliance with their treatment”.
Another reason given, “Stock shortages are a phenomenon that is not without consequences on the behavior of the French“, according to Cyclamed, which is based on a study carried out in May 2024 by the CSA institute among 1,000 people.
This survey reveals that among the 26% of French people who have faced a shortage of medicine, more than half (55%) have kept their unused medicines instead of returning them to the pharmacy.
Pharmacies have cardboard receptacles to collect returned medications. As part of their daily medication delivery rounds, wholesale distributors collect them in their vans.
These receptacles are placed either in padlocked containers or in compactors, a new feature since last year to “double storage capacity” and thus optimize transport.
When they are full, they are transported to energy recovery units, where they are incinerated to light and heat thousands of homes each year.
There has been no humanitarian redistribution of unused medicines since the end of 2008.