A first phase of experimentation is scheduled for the next school year.
The drug agency announces a big change concerning 600 drugs sold in France, some of which are well known to the general public. This change is made for ecological reasons. Will the argument be enough to make it accept French patients, especially the older ones? Not sure.
For a smooth passage, the authority decided to proceed in stages with a first phase of experimentation scheduled from October 1, 2025, for two years. During this duration, the French will be able to familiarize themselves with the novelty as well as the pharmacists who will be on the front line to answer their questions. This change will focus precisely on 420 drugs distributed to the hospital and 170 in town. Among the drugs concerned in hospitals, anti -cancer of Astrazeneca (Imfinzi®, Imudo®), BMS (Opdivo®, Yervoy®), MSD (Keytruda®), GSK (Jemperli®), or Roche (Herceptin®, Tecentriq®, Mabthera®).
In town, these will be certain vaccines such as Shingrix®, Abrysvo®, Rotateq® or Tetravac®, IPP (pantoprazole, omeprazole), statins (suvreza® and equivalent stomachs) and paracetamol 1 gram (Doliprane®, Dafalgan®, Viatris®, Banta Lyon®). This change, which risks disturbing many seniors, relates to the experimentation of “e-notice”, that is to say dematerialized notices. Concretely, patients will no longer find the classic paper manual in their box of medicines taking up the list of components, dosage, undesirable effects, contraindications … but will see a QR code on packaging in place, which they can scan with their smartphone to have access to the digital instructions. The objective of the health authorities is to reduce the use of paper which costs manufacturers money and which harms the planet.
An advance perceived with reluctance on the side of pharmacists. As our colleagues from the pharmacies instructor point out “This evolution requires increased vigilance for the pharmacies. Access to the notices via QR code assumes that patients are equipped, informed and autonomous, which is not obvious for the oldest or isolated populations. If this experiment should be generalized, it would deeply modify the relationship to the drug. It could also raise legal questions in case of an error linked to an inconsistent error”. The rest on October 1.
