Question 4535 — pharmacy and medications

Summary

Mr. Damien Maudet questions the Minister to the Minister of Labor, Health, Solidarity and Families, responsible for health and access to care, about the shortage of medications based on quetiapine. “In 3 weeks, if there are no more medications, maybe I will be hospitalized,” worries Isabelle, diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2008. For 17 years, her treatment with quetiapine has been essential to her every day. However, for several weeks, this product has not been found in pharmacies. There are thousands of patients, like Isabelle, who cannot do without their treatment and cannot replace it, at the risk of relapsing with the disease. According to the Mentalim association, bipolar people have a risk of suicide four times higher than in the rest of the population. Life expectancy for patients is 10 to 15% lower. Thus, the Minister understands the importance of treatments in the lives of patients. “Today, the supply of quetiapine is completely at a standstill throughout France and stocks in pharmacies are exhausted or in the process of being exhausted everywhere,” underlines Professor Antoine Pelissolo, psychiatrist at Henri-Mondor hospital. On January 30, 2025, the ANSM sounded the alarm on these severe supply tensions. SO that it is included on the list of medicines considered essential and with 3 million boxes dispensed in 2023, it is one of the most consumed treatments in France in the field of psychiatric illnesses. “Despite the ANSM alert, nothing has changed,” regrets Thomas Legras, president of the Mentalim association, specializing in supporting people suffering from mental disorders. The cause is still and always the same: the loss of control over the supply chain and the production of medicines outside of borders. This time, in the case of quetiapine-based treatments, according to the ANSM, this is a production problem encountered by the Greek manufacturer Pharmathen “which produces this medicine for several laboratories”. Faced with this shortage of treatment based on quetiapine, if the ANSM announces the ban on exports and also proposes the restriction of prescriptions. Concretely, this asks psychiatrists to no longer start treatment with quetiapine “except for patients presenting a depressive episode characterized as part of a bipolar disorder”. And, for those who already have treatment based on quetiapine, adaptation to another medication is uncertain. The ANSM also announced that it was studying the possibility to import medications based on quetiapine with immediate release, a specialty which is not marketed in France, only prolonged release dosages being prescribed. What about it? Will pharmacies also be called upon to make masterful preparations, such as when amoxicillins are out of stock? Finally, the agency also announces having triggered the European Voluntary Solidarity Mechanism, a system which will make it possible to call for help from Member States in the event of a serious shortage. He asks him to explain what this European system consists of and what is involved in the negotiations with European partners and this solidarity to respond to this health emergency situation; many patients are waiting for a position and action from the Government, in order to plan for the coming weeks, without having the fear of a relapse.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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