“It’s slow, it’s slipping”, say some, faced with lengthening delivery times. ” It will come “, whisper others, more optimistic. Pharmacists, on the front line to deliver, “in town”, Beyfortus treatment to prevent bronchiolitis in infants, try to respond as best they can to the impatience of parents.
“Some came to see us with their prescription even before the official launch of the immunization campaign, on September 15,” reports Bruno Maleine, president of the Central Council of Community Pharmacists. “ The triple epidemic of last winter, the emergencies and the saturated offices, it left its mark, underlines this pharmacist based in Villiers-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne). I try to reassure them by explaining the new protocol and the impossibility of stocking up… But supply times still remain very unclear. »
The Beyfortus, victim of its success? This is the argument that resonates at the Ministry of Health. In maternity wards, the rate of adherence to the new treatment among parents of infants exceeds 60%, and even 80% in certain establishments, according to initial reports.
To the point of pushing the Ministry of Health, for the sake of ” good management ” available stocks, to review its strategy on September 26: from now on, the 50 milligram (mg) version of the treatment, intended for babies weighing less than 5 kilograms (kg) – those most at risk of a serious form of bronchiolitis – is reserved for maternity wards.
The pressure increased a notch on Friday September 29: health professionals received an urgent message from the Directorate General of Health informing them that deliveries of the 100 milligram version of the drug, intended for babies weighing more than 5 kg , are “temporarily interrupted” in town pharmacies, and recommending that town doctors suspend their prescriptions. Orders placed until September 25 should be able to be fulfilled in the coming days. But we will have to wait until November for a second delivery.
“We navigate by sight”
The day before, Thursday September 28, on Franceinfo, the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, recalled that the “priority of priorities” went to infants in the maternity ward. “For the others, we are in permanent contact with the producing laboratory, he had said. (…) As soon as we have [des doses], we switch them to the pharmacy. »
“50 mg, 100 mg… In any case, since the start of the campaign, we have been navigating on sight, from promise of delivery to promise of delivery”, testifies, anonymously, the owner of a pharmacy from 14e district of Paris. She thought she was “in the nails” by placing an order, from mid-September, for ten doses – five at 50 mg, five at 100 mg. Before seeing each of his requests rebutted.
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