After a recommendation from the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) recommending limiting the delivery of paracetamol in pharmacies, the laboratories that produce this painkiller want to be reassuring. “Regarding UPSA, which monitors the stock status of its references (Dafalgan, Efferalgan) daily, no shortage has been observed”said the laboratory in a letter to AFP.
On Wednesday, the ANSM, the College of General Medicine and the pharmacists’ unions FSPF and USPO formulated “recommendations to moderate the use of paracetamol”and thus allow patients who have an immediate need to benefit from it.
They thus recommend that pharmacists limit, in the absence of a prescription, dispensing to two boxes per patient. Another recommendation, this time for doctors: do not prescribe paracetamol to patients who do not have an immediate need.
One million boxes of Doliprane produced per day
However, the main French producers insist that stocks are not out of stock. “The weekly monitoring set up by UPSA reports more than one month of stocks available in pharmacies on average for the paracetamol brands Dafalgan and Efferalgan”stresses UPSA to Agence France-Presse.
85% of active ingredient supplies come from the United States. The manufacture of the finished product is then entirely ensured on the industrial sites of the laboratory in France, in Agen, explains the manufacturer.
The giant Sanofi declares that it does not experience any supply difficulties either. The group produces around 1 million boxes of Doliprane per day, which is enough to cover the needs of the population until the end of the year, he says. To meet exceptional demand, the Lisieux site (Calvados) “running at full capacity”adds the laboratory, which specifies that 96% of this production is intended for the French market.
At the height of the pandemic, the sale of paracetamol was limited to one box per person, which generated a mini-panic and led to the decision to repatriate the production of its active ingredient to French territory. This must be produced again in Isère from 2023.