Health authorities have just ordered several pharmaceutical companies to pay a total of 8 million euros for failing to maintain sufficient stocks of medicines deemed essential.
The 4 months of safety stock were not respected
These penalties are part of a persistent context of shortages, specified the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM). "ANSM issues 8 million euros in financial sanctions against pharmaceutical laboratories that have not respected their 4-month safety stock", she said in a statement.
This legislation requires companies to guarantee reserves of drugs of major therapeutic interest, the interruption of which could endanger the lives of patients. The sanctions concern around thirty references of drugs, affecting several therapeutic areas. "The shortcomings concern, for example, antihypertensives, anticancer drugs, antimicrobials, neurology drugs, etc.", detailed Alexandre de la Volpiliere, director general of the ANSM, to AFP.
Record fine against labs: "a good signal"
Among the laboratories incriminated, Biogaran, a giant of generic drugs, received one of the largest fines for insufficient stocks of irbesartan, a treatment against hypertension.
These measures have been welcomed by patient associations, who consider this response necessary in the face of worsening shortages. Catherine Simonin, from France Assos Sante, declared: "This is a good signal because before the fines were much lower." She sees this as a sign of the increasing intensity of controls.
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