The French Minister of Health, François Braun, has promised that the shortage of paracetamol in pharmacies will be resolved “in the coming weeks” and that shortages of antibiotic amoxicillin will be fixed “in the weeks, or months to come”.
Braun took part in an interview on French television on Sunday morning in which he explained that the current shortages faced by French pharmacies was a result of “tensions over our drug stocks”. During the interview, the minister outlined plans to resolve the issue with paracetamol and claimed that stocks will have returned to a normal level within the coming weeks.
The measures to try to prevent shortages include putting a limit on the number of boxes that can be sold to one individual in a pharmacy and calling on manufacturers in the sector to increase production lines.
However, Braun has acknowledged that when it comes to the provision of amoxicillin, the issue is more long-lasting, and it could take weeks or even months to be resolved.
As for the cause of the shortages, the minister said that an increase in demand for several years marked by the Covid-19 crisis had left stocks lower than would normally be the case.
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