PARACETAMOL. Faced with difficulties in supplying pharmacies, the online sale of paracetamol has been banned. How to find Doliprane, Dafalgan or Fervex?
[Mise à jour le 4 janvier 2023 à 11h58] “There is a paracetamol problem in France.” Brigitte Aufran’s statement on BFM-TV, Tuesday, January 3, 2022, did not go unnoticed. In the evening, the president of the Committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks (Covars) indicated that tensions existed in pharmacies regarding the availability of this drug. In question: the cessation of exports from China.
Paracetamol is indeed mainly produced in the Middle Kingdom, which concentrates 50% of world production. If so far, France has always been supplied with paracetamol, the Chinese government has forced several factories manufacturing the drug to stop their exports in order to reserve paracetamol for its population, affected by an outbreak of Covid-19 cases in the country. . The link ? Paracetamol helps lower fever, one of the main symptoms of the epidemic.
How to get paracetamol?
France – but not only – therefore finds itself aggrieved. So how do you get paracetamol? First of all, it should be noted that there are very many drugs containing this molecule. If the best known remains Doliprane, Actifed, Dafalgan or Fervex are also part of this range. At least 16 different drugs are based on paracetamol: Actifed, Actron, Algicalm, Algodol, Claradol, Codoliprane, Dafalgan, Dextropropox, Doliprane, Dolirhume, Efferalgan, Febrectol, Fervex, Humex, Paracetamol codeine, Rhumagrip, Tramadol. Don’t panic if you can’t find your usual medication, there are plenty of others that can replace it and produce the same effects.
Although pharmacists indicate that they deliver these various remedies in dribs and drabs in order to be able to meet demand, it should be noted that the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) maintains a dashboard, accessible by online, on product availability. To date, supply tensions are reported on “all oral forms and suppositories” of paracetamol. Pharmacies therefore have them, but stocks are lower than usual.
Online sales prohibited
Thereby, a stop published this Wednesday in the Official Journal announces the suspension of the sale of paracetamol on the Internet until January 31, “considering that tensions in paracetamol-based medicines have continued for more than six months, with marked supply tensions for pediatric forms.” The government also justifies its decision by “the uncertainties over the coming weeks related to the health situation in China [qui] pose a risk of aggravation of tensions in the supply of specialties composed exclusively of paracetamol.