Drug tensions: amoxicillin and paracetamol are still available, according to the executive

The French can still find amoxicillin and paracetamol, despite rising tensions over these drugs, Industry Delegate Minister Roland Lescure told the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to LFI deputy Damien Maudet (Haut Vienne), who brandished a box of amoxicillin in the Hemicycle, the minister adopted a reassuring tone during the question-and-answer session with the government.

“Today our fellow citizens who are prescribed paracetamol or amoxicillin are prescribed paracetamol or amoxicillin. Let them calm down,” he said.

Factories run “24 hours a day”

“However, are there tensions in the market? The answer is yes, ”he acknowledged, believing that the Government is doing what is necessary to deal with this phenomenon. “Starting in July 2022, we ‘list’ stocks at the industry level to fairly distribute (to) pharmacies in the territory,” he said.

“After October 2022, the largest-repartiteurs do not need to export more medicines in question and now we increase the production of paracetamol in France, with the factories that tour aujourd’hui 24 hours south 24 and sept days sur sept”, also detailed the minister.

In addition, the project to relocate the active principle of paracetamol is underway, in Isère, with “first deliveries in 2025”, added Roland Lescure.

ANSM acknowledges “strong tensions” on amoxicillin

In 2021, the French Agency for Medicines Safety (ANSM) received 2,160 reports of stock-outs and risk of stock-outs, a figure that tends to increase year by year. Problems include insulins, essential in the treatment of diabetes, and antibiotics. The ANSM thus evoked in mid-November “strong tensions” in the supply of the oral form of amoxicillin, an antibiotic widely prescribed in children.

The list continues to grow, with the announcement on Tuesday of “tensions” surrounding a treatment for bladder tumors, BCG Medac.

“The Medac laboratory explains these tensions by a significant increase in prescriptions in 2022, as well as by the modifications made to the production site with a view to optimizing it,” the ANSM details in a press release, announcing to exceptionally authorize imports from India. of a replacement drug.