Question 15301 — pharmacy and medications

Summary

Ms. Emmanuelle Anthoine reminds the Minister of Solidarity and Health that the Government, during the parliamentary debates on the social security financing bill, expressed its intention to change the situation of pharmaceutical wholesale distributors. In fact, these wholesale distributors are imposed by the State the cost of their service based on the price of each drug they distribute and this leads for several years with insufficient and very unequal income for the profession, even though it is a key player in the medicine supply chain. Guaranteeing the accessibility and availability of medicines is one of the vital missions entrusted to players in the medicines chain, and in particular to distribution companies which ensure, on a daily basis, the supply of French pharmacies. These are 185 establishments (in mainland France) which enable the supply of medicines and health products to 22,000 French pharmacies, within an average delivery time of 2 hours 15 minutes. This requirement has also been recognized by the State since 1962, making wholesalers-distributors the only players in the pharmaceutical chain to be endowed with public service missions and the guarantors of a quality pharmacy network throughout France. These companies, which employ more than 12,000 people, thus contribute both to therapeutic continuity, by ensuring the distribution of nearly 6 million boxes of medicine every day, and to the dynamism of territories, particularly rural ones. Too little known, wholesalers-distributors, who are nevertheless key players in the drug supply chain, are in some way invisible and forgotten players in public authorities. However, the situation is worrying. Victims, on the one hand, of financial measures intended to control health expenses, even though the distributors have no responsibility in this area, and, on the other hand, of a method of remuneration that has become inappropriate, these companies are today in great financial difficulty. And through them, there is indeed a whole circuit of medicine, which has proven itself and which is recognized for its qualities, which could be called into question, to the detriment of patients and yet equal access to care has always been one of the pillars of the French health system. Given the urgency for these wholesale distributors and the risks for the supply of pharmacies, it would like to be informed of the progress of the reflections and solutions envisaged.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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