In July 6, the Senate inquiry committee on drug shortages released its report. The hearings conducted over five months highlighted the weaknesses of the State apparatus and its agencies in terms of pharmaceutical policies. In particular, they should lead us to question the lack of resources and skills in the ministries and state agencies in terms of public and industrial health strategy, planning of needs and preparation for pandemic risks, but also monitoring and inventory management. It is imperative that the State, which seems to have abandoned the control and management of these policies in favor of pharmaceutical companies and consulting firms, regain control.
In the midst of the first wave of Covid-19, in March 2020, Emmanuel Macron declared: “What this pandemic reveals is that there are goods and services that must be placed outside the laws of the market. » Citing drugs, he thus observed a loss of skills and room for manoeuvre, and advocated a radical change. However, three years after these announcements, the relocation of pharmaceutical production has not really begun, no strengthening of State powers in this area has been outlined, and no public production is on the agenda of the day. However, for months, tensions and shortages of essential medicines have threatened our ability to treat ourselves properly.
Drug shortages, a structural phenomenon that has been on the increase for the past fifteen years, have intensified recently due to geopolitical tensions and the epidemiological context, but also the refusal of the public authorities to impose binding obligations on the pharmaceutical industry (on storage time, for example). Today, they are linked in particular to an increase in global demand and to the rise in energy prices, which has an impact on the production of pharmaceutical raw materials.
Finally, the ultra-concentration of production in China and India exposes Europe to major risks in the event of border closures or any event affecting the production chain, such as a natural disaster. The announcement of the suspension of exports of certain medicines by China, on December 22, 2022, illustrates the foreseeable danger of this ultra-concentration and this dependence.
Refusal of transparency
The choices made by manufacturers are guided by logic and private interests. Thus, when the price of energy increases, some manufacturers stop producing drugs that would no longer be profitable and plead for a price increase, framed by the vote of the Medicare budget. To achieve this, the firms refuse transparency on the margins made by the intermediaries and by themselves, as well as the public aid received.
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