Victim of its success, the Beyfortus will be increasingly difficult to obtain. The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that supplies of this preventive treatment against childhood bronchiolitis, which began on September 15, will be reserved in part for maternity hospitals.
“Non-mandatory preventive treatments generally have an adherence rate that varies between 5 and 10%. However, today, adherence rates to this new preventive treatment exceed 60%, even reaching 80% in certain establishments”, which causes the offer. difficulties, the ministry stated in a press release.
Beyfortus, developed by the Sanofi group, is a treatment administered intramuscularly that aims to prevent babies from becoming infected by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis. The government has ordered 200,000 doses and Sanofi does not plan to produce more at the moment. BFMTV.com takes stock of the places where it is currently possible to get them.
For infants weighing less than 5 kg, in maternity
“The Ministry of Health and Prevention has decided to reserve the doses of nirsevimab 50 mg [le nom de l’anticorps du Beyfortus, ndlr] in maternity wards (suitable for infants weighing less than 5 kg). In fact, babies under one month old are at greater risk of developing a severe form of bronchiolitis,” the ministry wrote on Tuesday.
In fact, for babies weighing less than 5 kilos, the only solution to receive treatment is to go to a maternity ward, if the child is not already there.
“From today [ce mercredi], you cannot get Beyfortus 50 mg in pharmacies. (…) The orders placed will not be attended to,” Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of French Pharmaceutical Unions (FSPF), assures BFMTV.com.
The doses were already difficult to find in pharmacies in recent days, France Info reported this Wednesday morning. Now they are completely inaccessible. Especially because “no pharmacy in France has stock,” says Philippe Besset, since until now pharmacies only ordered the vaccine when they received a patient’s prescription.
For babies over 5 kg, in pharmacy
For babies who weigh more than 5 kg, a weight that is generally reached around the child’s two months, it is possible to go to the pharmacy to obtain a dose of Beyfortus 100 mg. Philippe Besset specifies that parents of children weighing less than 5 kg cannot use half a dose of this product.
“But there is some advice, for a baby that weighs 4.2 kg, 4.3 kg: pediatricians can give a prescription so that the pharmacist can already place the order because babies gain weight very quickly at that age,” explains the president of the FSPF. who specifies, however, that this way of proceeding “depends on pediatricians.”
At the moment, health authorities have not given any order of priority for the administration of doses to babies especially at risk of developing severe forms of bronchiolitis (sick children, premature babies, etc.).
Source: BFM TV
