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In a context of rationing of paracetamol sales and difficulties in supplying pharmacies, the government has announced that it will ban the online sale of these drugs. A decision that runs until January 31.
“The sale by Internet of specialties composed exclusively of paracetamol is suspended until January 31, 2023”. This is what we could read yesterday, Wednesday January 4, in a decree published in the Official Journal. A decision that intervenes urgently, while “tensions in paracetamol-based drugs have continued for more than six months“. In the decree, the executive recognizes this: “The various measures taken by the health authorities, however effective they may have been, have so far not made it possible to put an end to it”. The ban is aimed at not completely emptying the stocks.
Why do we lack paracetamol?
The shortage situation is not new: for several months, the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) has been asking pharmacists to ration the sale of paracetamol, known in particular through the famous Doliprane or Dafalgan. A situation which has, it seems, worsened due to the health crisis experienced in China, where the cases of Covid are exploding and whose government has banned the export of paracetamol in the world.
According to the Minister of Health François Braun, invited this morning by 4 truthson France 2, the increase in consumption in the country has raised the tension by one or more notches: “The problem is the 13% increase in consumption, with flu phenomena, which was not anticipated by manufacturers.” he targeted.
Moreover, these supply difficulties are part of a broader context of shortages of other drugs popular in winter, in France, such as that of amoxicillin, in particular for infants.
Paracetamol, amoxicillin… Is a return to normal envisaged in the short term?
To find normal stocks in pharmacies, you will have to be a little patient. Regarding amoxicillin, the most prescribed antibiotic in France, the Minister of Health announced this morning a return to normal expected within two months “to be really quiet and have our stocks replenished”.
For paracetamol, on the other hand, his answer was more evasive: “On paracetamol, manufacturers tell me: it will go very quickly”, reported François Braun while the pharmacists seem to spend a lot of time finding boxes. “So we are looking very closely at this difference between stocks and pharmacy“, said the Minister. Manufacturers claim to run their channels 24 hours a day.