Amoxicillin, the most prescribed antibiotic in France, is experiencing “strong supply tensions”, warns the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines. A shortage that threatens until March.
Amoxicillin, the most prescribed antibiotic in France, “is subject to severe supply tensions in France, which could last until March 2023,” says the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines, Friday, November 18 to franceinfo. The ANSM assures to do “everything possible” to “secure the situation” and “guarantee the needs of patients”. The ANSM and the Ministry of Health must communicate on the subject in the morning.
The difficulties particularly affect the “drinkable forms”, namely the powders to be diluted for children. The ANSM is currently trying to find solutions. It plans to ask doctors to be vigilant on the prescription of this drug used against ear infections, tonsillitis, sinusitis, dental abscesses or cystitis, recommending them to prescribe less time to patients.
A European shortage
To avoid a total stock shortage, the French Drug Safety Agency has already imposed on pharmacists a maximum number of boxes that can be purchased by patients. It has also asked laboratories that manufacture amoxicillin in France to increase their production, while waiting to identify new import channels from abroad.
This shortage “concerns all of Europe”, says the ANSM. They are the consequence of a “very significant increase in the consumption of antibiotics” and an industrial production that has not recovered its pre-Covid-19 capacity.