Children’s medicines, but not only, are still missing from pharmacies. And the factories that produce the active ingredients are at a standstill. Explanations.
“Sorry, but we don’t have paracetamol or amoxicillin!” The message is often the same from one pharmacy to another when it comes to the same morning prescription to treat resistant otitis in a 4-year-old child. While the Minister of Health wanted to reassure people about the shortage of children’s medicines at the end of November and believed that the problem would be solved “in the coming weeks”, the findings on site show a real shortage.
ANSM Recipes
Last week, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Healthcare Products (ANSM) also acknowledged on its website “the tension” over the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in children: “Clamoxyl (amoxicillin) and generics; Augmentin (amoxicillin/clavulanic acid) and generics”.
Explain this deficiency in particular “with the very significant increase in antibiotic consumption coupled with difficulties on industrial production lines. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand for amoxicillin has dropped very sharply, leading to a reduction or even the shutdown of certain production lines that have not regained their pre-pandemic production capacity.
In fact, the ANSM has issued a series of prescriptions for doctors (not to prescribe antibiotics for a viral infection, to limit the prescription to five days or even to wait for no improvement in an otitis…), pharmacists (packaging for a course of treatment of five days, consult a doctor if in doubt…) and even parents.
3000 live references
However, this deficiency does not only affect pediatric medicines. According to Bruno Bonnemain, vice-president of the Academy of Pharmacy, who was interviewed by Le Figaro, with almost 3,000 references in that year 202, there were tensions, even bottlenecks. That is about 12% of the drugs. In 2018, before the coronavirus pandemic, we were at 850 voltage references. “It’s a phenomenon that’s been growing for the last ten years, but has been particularly important in the last two or three years,” he adds.
In addition to paracetamol and amoxicillin, the greatest risks are in particular cough syrup, Ventolin, antidiabetics of the GLP-1 type, antiepileptics or cancer drugs, and even drugs for cardiovascular purposes.
The butterfly effect of Covid
The list goes on… And the problem could be ongoing. On December 24, Rémi Salomon, President of the Medical Committee of AP-HP, recalled on Twitter that “80% of the active ingredients, the raw material for our medicines, are manufactured in China and India”. An addiction that could cost us dearly at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic is flaring up again in China.
Christian Bréchot, virologist and President of the Global Virus Network, therefore explained on BFM-TV that already “a huge percentage of companies in China are at a standstill because people are sick. The logic is that this will have an impact on our “supply” of active ingredients for medicines. And this at a time when global demand is exploding… And Beijing may be tempted to reserve its production to supply its national market.
80% of the active ingredients, the raw materials for our medicines, are manufactured in China and India.
The Covid wave that is currently sweeping China is likely to exacerbate our supply difficulties for many medicines.Production has to be relocated.
— Remi Solomon (@RemiSalomon) December 24, 2022
Meanwhile, medical professionals recommend not prescribing unnecessary antibiotics to conserve supplies. It is also recommended to use barrier gestures to avoid winter diseases that require many medications.