French Pharmacists Strike Over Drug Shortages, Low Prices

French pharmacists launched their first walkout in 10 years, closing up shop over drug shortages, low regulated prices, pharmacy closures and fears medications could be sold online.

After poster and email campaigns to warn of the closures in recent days, patients found around 90 percent of pharmacies across France closed for the day, with every single one in some regional towns shutting their doors.

Local authorities have requisitioned some locations to ensure legally-required minimum coverage.

Protesters in cities including Toulouse, Nice, Angers and Limoges chanted slogans like "Pharmacies in danger means a threat to health" and "Where's the amoxycillin?" referring to an antibiotic that has suffered repeated shortages.

Professionals say they are just as concerned about drug shortages, rural closures and training reform as about remuneration and conditions.

"The biggest worry is vanishing pharmacies" which face economic hardship in rural areas and sometimes even in towns and cities, said Philippe Besset, president of the FSPF pharmacists' union federation.

Around 2,000 pharmacies have closed nationwide in 10 years, leaving around 20,000 in operation, trade bodies say.

Unions are calling for higher remuneration from next year as inflation blows up their costs, ahead of talks next week with France's national health insurance authority.

French pharmacists claim that drug prices in France -- which are set by the government -- are lower than in neighboring countries, which has generated shortages.

Beyond the walkouts, pharmacists plan demonstrations in many towns nationwide as well as a central protest in Paris, where a march will run through the capital's south from the pharmacy school to the economy ministry.

A major sore point concerns suspected government plans to make it easier to sell over-the-counter medications online.