Drug shortages are gaining ground. For several weeks, many French pharmacies no longer have abortion pills on their shelves. While drug shortages have not been uncommon in recent months, this time they relate to a highly sensitive subject for women’s right to control their bodies. The alert was launched several weeks ago by the collective The Observatory of Transparency in Medicines Policies (OTMeds).
In several places, misoprostol was or is still difficult, if not impossible, to find, for example in Lille at the beginning of April, in Versailles, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine), he reported. “We recently received new testimonies indicating that it is not available either in Occitania or in certain Parisian pharmacies”, Pauline Londeix, co-founder of this observatory, told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday April 18. Voluntary interruption of pregnancy (IVG) with medication consists of taking two drugs in succession: mifepristone then, between 36 and 48 hours later, misoprostol, necessary for the expulsion of the embryo.
In France, two misoprostol-based specialties are authorized in medical abortions and marketed by the Nordic Pharma laboratory, with largely American capital: Gymiso and Misoone. The Medicines Agency (ANSM) said on Tuesday that it had been informed at the end of 2022 by this laboratory of manufacturing delays for its specialty Gymiso. “This delay led to a disruption of the coverage of Gymiso needs, estimated at 20%, which led to a postponement of use to Misoone to which was added a delay in the supply of raw material for the latter. “, she explained.
In this context, the agency stresses that it has set up a “quota” to better manage available stocks, and a ban on the sale and export of these drugs by wholesalers abroad when there is a risk of tension were identified. “These tensions are being resolved with the distribution of tens of thousands of boxes of Gymiso last week and Misoone from this week,” the ANSM now assures. In parallel, “in order to consolidate” supplies, “an importation of the Italian Misoone specialty is also underway”.
“It’s good that the Medicines Agency finally recognizes that there has been a problem in recent weeks,” reacted Pauline Londeix, of OTMeds. “We are waiting to see if the shortages of this drug will really end. It is in any case one example too many which proves that an ultra-concentration of the market can jeopardize our health security, ”she added. His organization, marked on the left, calls for a massive relocation of the production of drugs in France, considering that the bursting of this one in several countries contributes to the problems of supply.
In recent months, tensions have weighed on the stocks of several drugs. This winter, several antibiotics, including amoxicillin, were thus out of stock. At the beginning of February, the Minister of Health, François Braun, had promised a rapid return to normal and announced a plan aimed at preventing any future crisis.
This time, the shortage touches on the sensitive subject of access to abortion, even though this right is being questioned in the United States. In France, due to shortages, “access to abortion risks being severely limited, seriously undermining women’s sexual and reproductive rights,” the High Council for Equality between Women and Women warned on Tuesday. men (HCE), recalling that 70% of abortions are medical. “The American situation poses the threat of a shortage linked to the constitution of stocks by the American States which seek to compensate for a possible stoppage of the production and/or marketing of mifepristone and misoprostol”, also fears the HCE .
Political figures, such as Sandrine Rousseau (EELV) or Laurence Rossignol (PS), have asked the government to act urgently to “guarantee this right of women”. Last week, Family Planning was also moved by the situation, calling for measures “so that access to abortion is not restricted”.
