“There is no rationing. The idea is to make the distribution of medications to the unit compulsory when there is tension. But not all, only certain antibiotics,” a source close to the matter told AFP this Wednesday, confirming information from Franceinfo. This measure is intended to combat shortages and antibiotic resistance, as the presentation of the 2024 Social Security financing bill approaches.
This decision could also help reduce waste by delivering the exact number of tablets prescribed, in a country where the consumption of antibiotics remains among the highest in Europe and which was faced last winter with shortages of amoxicillin, a antibiotic commonly used in certain bacterial infections. This project leaves pharmacists perplexed: they wonder about the practical arrangements and point out a traceability problem.
” It is not the correct answer “
“Cutting out the blisters (packaging shells, editor’s note), that’s not the right answer. In terms of lot number traceability, it’s a real hassle,” recently estimated the president of the union of community pharmacists’ unions (USPO). “There is no consensus on single delivery from an industrial point of view,” underlines the pharmaceutical laboratory lobby (Leem).
Single-unit sales were tested in France between November 2014 and 2015 for around ten antibiotics in 75 city pharmacies, an experiment carried out by the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). Following this experiment, the principle of single dispensing of certain medications, notably antibiotics, was ratified in the anti-waste law (Agec law of 2020) and the system made possible from 2022.
Roland Lescure announces a cap on the financial contribution
On the delivery of antibiotics, the government also wants to allow patients to obtain a diagnosis in pharmacies in the event of suspicion of tonsillitis or cystitis, then possible treatment without a prescription if the diagnostic aid test (Trod) is turns out to be positive. The executive seeks to tackle drug shortages on several fronts: relocation of the production of drugs considered essential, review of the prices of certain molecules, better stock management, etc.
In a daily economic interview The echoes On Tuesday, the Minister for Industry Roland Lescure made a gesture towards the pharmaceutical industry by announcing a cap on the financial contribution that laboratories must pay to Health Insurance when their turnover exceeds a given threshold. But in the event of a cessation of production of one of the 6,000 drugs of major therapeutic interest (MITM), “the State may ask the company to transfer the use of the drug free of charge for two years” if it does not “There is no buyer,” he added.