The sale of Covid-19 self-tests authorized outside pharmacies until January 31

The sale of self-tests to detect Covid-19 has been authorized outside pharmacies “exceptionally and until January 31, 2022”, according to a decree published Tuesday in the Official Journal, a liberalization demanded by supermarkets since last spring. The sale of antigenic self-tests has until now been limited to pharmacies, which campaigned to keep the monopoly, justifying themselves by their advisory role.

A request from April

Several bosses of supermarkets had demanded to be able to sell it in April and had gone back to campaign in recent weeks, with the fifth wave of coronavirus, believing that this could constitute another weapon to fight against the spread of the virus. Some large brands, including E.Leclerc and Lidl, claim to already have self-tests in stock. “We have it because we give it to our staff and then also to many charities,” says CEO Michel-Edouard Leclerc at the microphone of Thierry Dagiral.

A victory for the industry

Faced with unprecedented demand, the government wants to diversify supply circuits. After masks, large distributors will therefore be able to sell self-tests, which are increasingly difficult to find in pharmacies.

Among distributors, it is the start of the fight to be ready before the New Year. The objective: to start marketing by the end of the week. “Two-thirds of the stores are supplied,” Michel-Edouard Leclerc advises on Europe 1. But it will take around ten days for the stocks to be completely ready and for all the stores to be delivered. “We are going to ramp up,” says the Carrefour group.

Lidl could well go a little faster than the others since the brand already sells self-tests in its stores in Germany.

Self-tests sold at cost price

“The supply circuits had been identified by the distributors and will now be able to be mobilized”, indicates the Federation of Commerce and Distribution. Most distributors promise to sell at cost. Less than two euros at Auchan or in Leclerc centers, for example, against four to five euros in pharmacies.

But there are still some unanswered questions: will the self-tests be freely accessible or will the distributors offer a consulting solution? In any case, this is the argument of pharmacists, who wanted to keep the monopoly. “It is a political fault in terms of public health”, regrets Gilles Bonnefond, the president of the Union of trade unions of dispensing pharmacists. “We notice that many patients use self-tests when they are in contact or when they are symptomatic, whereas in these cases, an antigen test or PCR must be done in a pharmacy. We will lose the traceability of the follow-up. the epidemic. “

These tests must remain “comfort tests”, specifies Michel-Edouard Leclerc: “If you have any concerns, you have to go to the pharmacist, to the laboratory or to a health center. There, it is more for life. family, it’s something that secures. I myself do it with my children. “