Guest Monday morning in Europe, Axel Kahn, president of the League against cancer, warns of the need to relocate the production of certain drugs, essential to treat cancer, while shortages have been increasing in European hospitals since the last year.

INTERVIEW

In 2019, some 1,500 drugs were reported as being out of stock in French hospitals or pharmacies, which is partly due to increasingly outsourced production.

However, a quarter of these products concern drugs against cancer.

To warn about the consequences of this shortage, the League against cancer notably invites patients to testify on a new online platform, penuries.ligue-cancer.net.

"It's not just France, all the countries of the world are concerned", notes Monday at the microphone of Europe Morning the geneticist Axel Kahn, also president of the League against cancer.

"Extremely important, fundamental drugs have fallen into the public domain, they are no longer protected by patents, which is rather good news, and prices are falling. But as prices fall, laboratories no longer have a There is great commercial interest in selling them, so they have them manufactured at lower costs, almost always in Asia, above all in India and China, ”explains this specialist.

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"Sometimes we don't know what substitution treatment to give the patient"

"For some molecules, there is only one manufacturer for the whole world. When a manufacturing batch has a problem, all the production must be destroyed, and we are faced with a shortage that can last several months. It's totally dramatic, ”he insists.

Especially since these shortages, observed in 95% of French hospitals, could have an impact on the survival of patients.

"Sometimes, we do not know what substitution treatment to give to the patient. We do not tell him, we do not give him the information, it is a loss of chances [of recovery]", notes Axel Kahn who quotes, as for example, bladder cancer.

"In mild forms, it is treated with intravesical instillations of two products, Mitomyscin C and BCG. These two products were out of stock."

A situation that Marie-José Legrand, treated for this type of cancer, had the bitter experience of last January.

"We stopped my injections, for lack of product. I felt aggrieved and anxious. I risked having cancerous cells again", she testifies to Europe 1. Luckily, she was able again dispose of his treatment after three months.

But in some cases, the disease has time to regain ground, sometimes in an extremely serious way.

"Bladder cancer patients have seen their disease evolve, invade the wall. It was necessary to intervene and remove the bladder", reports Axel Kahn.

Relocate productions

"There must be reproduction of these products in France and throughout Europe", argues Axel Kahn.

In the meantime, La Ligue contre le cancer asks that the laboratories that sell these drugs stockpile for at least four months.

"We are asking for sanctions if these stocks are not made," adds the president of The League against cancer.