With the coronavirus epidemic, the increased demand for hydroalcoholic gel threatens pharmacists' stocks. The pharmacies will thus be able to produce themselves this gel which is used to disinfect the hands, announced this Friday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
"I signed a decree which will authorize pharmacies to produce their own hydroalcoholic solution," said Olivier Véran after an inter-ministerial meeting at the Ministry of Health. "Industry representatives tell us that they can produce up to 2 million doses a day," he said.
Framed prices
According to him, this authorization will be accompanied by "price controls". Sales of hydroalcoholic gels, the use of which is highly recommended for disinfecting hands and preventing infection with Covid-19, have recently skyrocketed due to fears about the virus and it is starting to be difficult to find especially in some Parisian pharmacies. A decree framing the selling prices of these gels was published Friday in the Official Journal .
This decree, which applies until May 31, limits the price of hydroalcoholic gels intended for personal hygiene to 100 euros per 100 ml. The 50 ml bottles are capped at 2 euros per bottle and those of 300 ml at 5 euros. The Minister of the Economy "can modify by decree" these maximum prices imposed in order to "take into account the evolution of the market situation observed on all or part of the territory", specifies the text.
Pharmacists compensated
This decree, which regulates retail sales prices to the public but also wholesale sales prices to resellers, aims to "protect consumers against the risks induced by a manifestly abnormal situation on the market," he adds. The follow-up of the measure must be ensured by the DGCCRF (repression of the frauds), had indicated Thursday the secretary of State Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
According to the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), which had requested this authorization to manufacture gel, most pharmacies are currently out of stock. Those who still had hydroalcoholic products, acquired at prices higher than the selling price now in force, may ask to be compensated for sales at a loss generated by the pricing framework, added the FSPF.
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