2024-09-26 04:04:00
Amoxicillin, a drug used to treat various infections, was in serious shortage in the fall-winter of 2023. The industry hopes to have found the cure for this problem, but fears in advance that it will fall into the same shortage.
The question is almost always met with long sighs. Should we fear a new shortage of amoxicillin as winter approaches? Memories of long weeks of hardship endured last year were revived this week.
The reason: a reminder “of a very small number of vials” of a version of the antibiotic, a variation used to treat children and infants. But in this situation, the dose does not make the poison, when it comes to amoxicillin, the smallest pill is good to take, as pharmacists, doctors or patients who have had a series of difficulties over the past year testify.
“There is hardly a day without a call from a pharmacist who does not have what has been prescribed,” Jean-Christophe Nogrette, assistant secretary of the general practitioners’ union, MG France, told BFMTV.com. “This concerns amoxicillin, but these shortages also concern many other drugs.”
Capsules, powders, syrup…
Why is this product a new white gold? Because it is used for many common infections, we are talking about a drug used as a “first resort”. Sinusitis, otitis, angina, pneumonia, dental abscess… The pathologies that can be treated with this antibiotic are numerous, both in adults and children, especially in its syrup form.
“Capsule, powder, syrup… They are the same difficulties,” emphasizes Jean-Christophe Nogrette.
The supply difficulties are the combination of two factors: “too” high consumption of antibiotics (700 prescriptions per 1,000 inhabitants in 2022 according to health authorities) and a production of active principle that is too low.
“Unfortunately, for years, shortages have been frequent for many medicines. We are of course concerned by these situations, but today I cannot answer about the situation this winter,” says Romain Basmaci, head of department at AP-HP and secretary general of the French Society of Pediatrics.
A thin “trickle” but no total break
Philippe Besset, the president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions, speaks of a “batch recall that is not pleasing in a period of fragility”. The representative of French pharmacists acknowledges the “fear” of a shortage this winter. But for the moment, the situation is not blocked.
“There is a continuous trickle of water from the tap, let’s say. Measures have been taken, particularly at the distribution level, so that all pharmacies are supplied by wholesale distributors,” he explains.
Beyond fears, he shows “confidence” in the protection mechanisms adopted to avoid the worst. On this point, the Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) reminds BFMTV.com of the deployment of a winter plan, already in place in 2023 to “anticipate and limit tensions on certain major winter medicines and thus secure coverage of needs for patients”.
The fact remains that, on its dedicated pagethe ANSM is reporting difficulties with certain dosages of the drug, particularly in its drinkable form. “Supply tensions” have been ongoing since at least October 2022, “these concern the whole of Europe”, the health agency tempers.
Drug shortage: why is the ANSM imposing fines on laboratories that do not have enough stock?
For three years, the law has required laboratories to consolidate 4-month safety stocks of certain drugs of therapeutic interest (including this antibiotic) if they have recently been out of stock. This requirement is the subject of numerous breaches. On Tuesday, 11 laboratories were fined a total of 8 million euros for failing to meet these obligations.
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