Question 12083 — pharmacy and medications

Summary

Ms. Agnès Carel draws the attention of the Minister of Health and Prevention to stocks of unused medicines for human use (MNU). Article 40 of Law No. 2020-105 of February 10, 2020 relating to the fight against waste and the circular economy established the possibility of dispensing medications individually in pharmacies. But it seems that three years after its entry into force, this system is hardly used by the pharmaceutical industry in France. According to figures from the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), out of more than 600 million acts of dispensing reimbursable medicines per year, only 772,000 single medications would have been delivered in French pharmacies between May and December 2022, or less than 0.1% of acts. However, this new system represents health, environmental and especially important financial ones. If it were more widely used, it would make it possible to avoid self-medication which can be dangerous and could considerably reduce the waste of unused medicines largely financed by social security. According to a report from the Court of Auditors on the application of social security financing laws for 2023, the health sector presented a deficit of 21 billion euros. He It is therefore important to mobilize to develop the single dispensation of medicines in France, like many countries such as the United States of America, Canada and the United Kingdom which have used this method of delivery for a long time. Indeed, in France, the number of doses contained in the boxes is far greater than the number of doses needed for commonly prescribed treatments. The French, every year, would throw away on average 1.5 kg of medicines per inhabitant. And even if pharmacies have the obligation to take back valid medicines, they are no longer intended to be reused for humanitarian use as could still be the case before December 31, 2008. They have been incinerated since 2009. Thus, nearly 10,000 tonnes of medicines are collected each year from pharmacies in order to be destroyed. Also, she asks him what measures it intends to take to encourage and develop very widely and very quickly the use of single drug delivery to avoid waste and reduce health insurance expenses.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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1. 10 October 2023

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• Agnès Carel · auteur

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