"Drugs are not ordinary products, do not take them lightly," hammers the campaign launched Wednesday by the National Agency for Drug Safety (ANSM). A major public health issue while one in five French people takes higher doses, or several drugs at the same time, to relieve their symptoms faster. One in two French people gives a drug to a loved one because they have similar symptoms, and 34% do not see any risk in using an expired treatment. However, the consequences of misuse can be deleterious. An overdose of paracetamol - very popular with our compatriots - can lead to serious liver damage, which may require transplants.
But it is also an economic issue, while the consumption of drugs, excluding hospitalization, reached 31.1 billion euros in 2021, up 4.4%, according to DREES. A sum financed three-quarters by Social Security. The pressure exerted on pharmaceutical laboratories certainly made it possible to lower prices (-3%), but the increase in volumes (+7.7%) explains the increase in expenditure. Regularly singled out by the OECD as one of the largest consumers of medicines in Europe, France is still distinguished by its use of antibiotics almost 45% higher than the average. And this despite another campaign that has become famous, "antibiotics are not automatic".
