La « chaîne pharmaceutique », atout essentiel de sécurité sanitaire en France. Synthèse de la séance

The National Academy of Pharmacy underlines the importance of health safety guarantees, provided by the “pharmaceutical chain” that bring the medicine until his user (from manufacturers to dispensing pharmacists), chain of which the security of each link is controlled and guaranteed by pharmacists. The first of the safety rules lies in the very fast availability of the medicine for the patients, in every respect of the national territory, due to an efficient system of pharmaceutical distribution and to a tightened network of pharmaceutical dispensaries (that constitutes a network of expertises especially to the service of patients and public health). All along the chain, also exists a same concern to guarantee and to preserve the pharmaceutical quality of the medicines. An essential element of the health safety is the right usage of the medicine, to which contribute: information associated with the marketing of the medicine, the very important role of the dispensing pharmacist as such sanitary adviser and therapeutic education teacher, the intervention of the hospital dispensary in clinical pharmacy, the “Pharmaceutical File” under setting up, pharmacovigilance, traceability of medicines … Pharmacists, responsible at the level of the different steps of the chain, get appropriate skills, carry out themselves their duties and are responsible in front of the National Board of Pharmacists, and their common professional knowledge reinforces the cohesion and the robustness of the chain. Facing the serious issue of counterfeiting of medicines, the pharmaceutical chain constitutes an important line of defence against the entry of counterfeited drugs into commercial channels. The academy of Pharmacy warns against all evolution that would consist to break, even partially, of the mandatory and continuous pharmaceutical control.