In France last winter, in the midst of a shortage, the GSK laboratory allegedly destroyed vials of amoxicillin for slight defects in the packaging. To find out more, a journalist from “Cash Investigation” was hired on the packaging control lines for this antibiotic intended for Japan and was able to film with a hidden camera. Extract from a document to be seen on January 9 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.
In France, there is only one laboratory that produces amoxicillin. The factory is located in Mayenne and belongs to the British group GSK, one of the ten giants of the global pharmaceutical industry. In February 2024, in the midst of a shortage, GSK, like other laboratories, obtained that the French state increase the purchase price of amoxicillin by 10%. In exchange, the laboratories have undertaken to provide France with a greater number of antibiotics than the previous year.
When “Cash Investigation” asked GSK if they had managed to meet their production commitment in exchange for this price increase, the multinational said it was unable to answer. And did not accept requests to film in the factory or for interviews. But Marie-Stella, a journalist from the magazine team, was able to film in this factory in Mayenne, with a hidden camera. She was hired on the production control lines, or rather the control of the packaging of amoxicillin vials. The journalist then discovered that these bottles were not intended for France, but for another GSK customer: Japan. Because the factory produces antibiotics for more than 110 countries.
The Land of the Rising Sun seems to be a client.”very demanding” regarding the packaging of medicines. According to the GSK trainer who supervises Marie-Stella, “everything has to be perfect”. Small, barely visible aesthetic defects, such as a crumpled or dog-eared label, or even a slight imperfection on the glass of the bottle, are enough to remove it from the production line, while the medicine inside does not present any defects. default. Unlike European consumers, these details “may challenge a future Japanese patient; with their culture, this is not acceptable… [Les flacons] will be put in the trash!” In barely an hour, Marie-Stella had to remove around fifty bottles from the production line, as did her colleague. According to the GSK training manager, production controllers risk “set aside about 10 to 15% of the production.
Why couldn’t France recover these drugs that Japan didn’t want? Let us remember that, like many countries, it was facing, at that time, a serious shortage of amoxicillin, and that the antibiotic, inside the vials, did not present any problem. According to our information, thousands of vials of amoxicillin were thrown away by GSK in 2024 for simple cosmetic defects on the packaging.
-GSK having refused the interview request from “Cash Investigation”, the director of the documentary Julie Lotz questioned the laboratory by email about these thousands of discarded vials, and the pharmaceutical giant claimed not to know what the magazine was referring to. “Cash” submitted this revelation to Grégory Emery, the Director General of Health, number 2 of the Ministry of Health. He claims not to be aware of these precise facts, but that if he had been informed, he would have asked the laboratory to supply the French market with these products…
Excerpt from “Drug shortages: do the labs rule the roost?”, a document by Julie Lotz to be seen in “Cash Investigation” on January 9, 2025.
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