Bad “wholesale distributors”, also called “short-liners”, are in the sights of the Assembly. As part of the Social Security finance law vote, LREM deputy Audrey Dufeu-Schubert tabled an amendment aimed at repressing certain practices.
“They have a policy of buying inexpensive drugs in France and doing a lot of exports in order to benefit from significant margins,” she explains. However, these wholesalers “do not respect their 24-hour permanence when they sometimes have to deliver establishments in difficulty. In access to medicines, this causes shortages ”.
The amendment, voted on, strengthens the sanction in the event of a repeat offense to bring it up to a maximum of 10% of the annual turnover of the companies sanctioned. The amount collected is directed to the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) to strengthen its control missions.
The text received general support, in particular from the government. But the deputy LR Thibault Bazin calls all the same not to “generalize”, recalling that “most of the wholesale distributors who do their job historically in France are not concerned” and that the problem comes mainly from new actors. He therefore asks that these be followed up more.