A clear illustration of the effects of drug shortages. The number of reports of drug stock shortages and risks of stock shortages reached unprecedented levels in 2022, according to a Senate information report published in July. Supply tensions that will continue in 2023, as 13-year-old Lenny bitterly experiences.
The teenager suffers from Noonan syndrome, a genetic disease “that manifests itself in a particular aspect of facial features, heart malformations and short stature,” according to the Noonan association.
Out of stock “for the next few weeks”
To compensate for his stunted growth, Lenny takes a medication, Norditropin FlexPro, which contains growth hormone. She had been taking it every day since the beginning of the year, but on August 23 she received her last dose, his mother, Susie Chaudey, said on BFMTV on Tuesday. Out of stock, this medicine is now impossible to find in France, she lamented.
In a press release, the laboratory that manufactures it, Novo Nordisk, explained in early September that “supply tensions regarding Norditropin FlexPro have intensified due to a strong increase in domestic demand during the summer of 2023.” Therefore, the laboratory has announced “a shortage of stock for the coming weeks of the 3 doses of Norditropin FlexPro.” The Danish company plans to have all three doses “normally available” in early October.
a worried family
If this medication is not “vital” for Lenny, his mother is worried about the effect stopping his treatment may have on him. “Our son, during his illness, really endures everything. The only thing he cares about is reaching an approximately normal size,” she said Monday on BFMTV.
The teenager went from a height of 1.38 meters in January to 1.44 meters currently. “So it works, but by stopping the medication we don’t know what effect it will have,” stressed Susie Chaudey.
“These are children who are already disabled, who are going through a lot, their families too, because it is still very difficult,” he testified.
Towards management at the European level?
The shortage of medicines has multiple causes, according to the Senate information report. He cites in particular “the decline in French production, a consequence of forty years of relocation”, the fact that production is too concentrated and flows with difficulty, which makes it vulnerable.
He also points out that the commercial and financial strategy of laboratories is too often oriented “towards innovative and expensive medicines”, to the detriment of older medicines.
Among its 36 lines of reflection, the senatorial investigation commission mentions the sustainable relocation in Europe of the production of essential medicines and the reinforcement of “obligations of supply, transparency and shortage management at the European level.”
He also criticizes the French authorities for having “lacked the ability to respond and anticipate” last winter and the manufacturers for having “erroneously based their forecasts on previous winters.” In short: “manage your actions better”, as Susie Chaudey declared on BFMTV this Tuesday.
Source: BFM TV
