In the midst of a pollen alert period, the British laboratory GSK recognized, this Friday, June 7, “tensions” in the supply of Ventolin in France due to strong global demand: it therefore decided to transfer stocks to coming from its production site in Spain.
“There are tensions in places in France,” a spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) told AFP, without being able to say whether other countries were affected by supply difficulties for this drug intended to relieve asthma.
The laboratory is “at maximum production capacity” but “for several weeks, the number of doses on the market has not been sufficient to meet demand”, according to GSK. The group is “confident” that the situation will be resolved “fairly quickly” thanks to “the reinforcement of stocks” at its Spanish production site.
The vigilant ANSM
“There is no shortage” but “supply tensions felt on the ground”, for two asthma drugs, Ventolin and Seretide, the National Security Agency of the Republic told AFP. medicine (ANSM). The medicine policeman ensured “the implementation of a quantitative quota by the laboratories” with the aim of “fairly distributing supplies across the entire territory and preserving available stocks over time”.
The signs of tension “are more than obvious” and “have appeared for a short week”, Pierre-Olivier Variot, president of the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions (Uspo), told AFP. The price of Ventolin is “4.60 euros in France when it is around 32 euros in Italy: this difference should not help ensure that the French market is supplied”, he believes. This supply tension is worrying, while the level of risk of allergy to grass pollen is high throughout France.
In 50 years, GSK has produced the equivalent of three billion aerosols of Ventolin at its Evreux (Eure) site dedicated to respiratory treatments for asthma but also for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.