By the editor
Pharma.be, representing the industry, does not share your opinion on the current shortages?
“She’s not going to say otherwise. Yet it is a fact. . By making enormous savings on older medicines, for example by producing them only at one site abroad and by managing its stocks just in time to save money or by choosing the quantities it delivers, it itself created most of the shortages.”
And you, what can you do?
“At the beginning of 2022, realizing the worsening of the situation, Febelco increased its inventories by more than 20 million euros. Every day we also make thousands of transfers between our repositories, costing us millions. Unfortunately this is not enough. We cannot deliver a product that we do not receive. Currently, we receive 7000 calls per day from our pharmacists for shortages. Pharmacists search 6 to 7 hours per week for solutions against shortages for their patient. »
Do you have any solutions ?
“You have to work on the three elements of the drug journey: the manufacturer, the wholesale distributor and the pharmacist. We must force the industry to have sufficient stock and to be more transparent about it, in particular by correctly filling out the Pharmastatut site (site for encoding drug shortages), otherwise the drug agency has an unclear image. of the actual situation. The wholesaler-distributor has, for its part, 250 million in strategic stocks. This stock is in great danger because it is underfunded by the state. The wholesaler is not just a van that delivers drugs. He has an overview of the needs of medicines in the territory. Today, with current prices and our margins, which have not been indexed for 20 years, we are losing money delivering and storing medication. Not long ago, we were still 20 wholesale distributors…. and we are only 3 today. It is not good news. Our margin has decreased by 100 million euros with costs that are only exploding (energy, transport, etc.). Also, we must give more alternatives to pharmacists in terms of substitutions and help parallel importation, because I remind you that in most cases the product is available in another country. The authorities must refuse that the industry padlocks the Belgian market to this extent, it is not healthy for a country like ours.
“Put the human at the center of health care”
How can we improve our health care?
“We must revalue the role of each and put the human being at the center of the process. We must continue to make people want to take care of their neighbor because today there is a loss of personnel. This is worrisome for magnificent professions such as health care. Young people should therefore not be disgusted. »
Do you believe in the recovery of Wallonia?
“Just in the production of the drug, we could relocate production to create jobs and added value. It is possible to produce with us. Obviously, it still takes 5 and 10 years to reindustrialize and not just the production sites, you also have to think about the raw material and the packaging. In addition, production and labor costs have decreased. …not to mention that logistics and energy (transport) costs have increased. It therefore makes perfect sense to produce in Belgium. We are lucky to have a strong pharmaceutical industry that could support such a transition. This is a message that I address to the federal and Walloon ministers. It is a strategic choice and a magnificent card to play in terms of employment. »