Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
Medical validation:
January 17, 2023
For the past few weeks, Paxlovid – a drug against Covid-19 developed by Pfizer – has been the subject of significant traffic. Buyers obtain large quantities using forged prescriptions.
It was the Union of Community Pharmacists (USPO) that sounded the alarm on Wednesday, January 11. The treatment against Covid-19 Paxlovid would indeed be the subject “of a traffic growing and intended for clandestine export, with falsified prescriptions or not“, specifies the Union.
A (too?) strong demand for Paxlovid
For several weeks, almost everywhere in France (Paris, Grand Est and the Paca region) pharmacists have been recording a growing increase in demand for Paxlovid; whereas this drug delivered under prescription is only little used usually.
“People wishing to know if it was easy and possible to have Paxlovid in large quantities: 20, 30, 40 boxes“, says Cyril Colombani, pharmacist in the Alpes-Maritimes, to France info.
A few days later, two buyers show up at the pharmacy… with foreign prescriptions.
“They came with prescriptions telling me they were Chinese prescriptions, wondering if with those prescriptions they could get boxes of Paxlovid. They were ready to pay up to 50 euros a box. So the answer is obviously no.“, reveals the pharmacist.
Other suspicious orders: some pharmacies have mass-purchased the drug against Covid-19. Something to alert the authorities.
Pharmacies face heavy penalties
The Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions therefore recalls that the Paxlovid “cannot be sold on the Internet” and “pharmacies cannot export drugs and can only retail for their patients“.
It also points out that a pharmacy that exports is liable to heavy criminal and financial penalties.
For its part, the Ministry of Health confirms the increase in the number of orders – from 1000 to 2000 boxes of Paxlovid in addition to normal.
? Paxlovid ® Traffic Alert
❕ Contrast media: dispensing and invoicing
? Help with learning
? Emergency Contraception
? 2nd Pharmacy e-CongressMore info ⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/830FhpAu6Q
— USPO – Community Pharmacists (@USPO_Pharmacies) January 11, 2023
Drug trafficking doomed to disappear?
According to Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo, this type of traffic should be “endangered”.
“With the deployment of My Health Space and anti-falsification electronic prescriptions, this type of traffic should become rare, or even die out“, specifies the emergency doctor, before sending a message to patients still in fear of the Covid “Paxlovid is not a miracle drug. In addition, it is only intended for people at risk of severe form of Covid-19.”