A "fragile" situation: the shortage of psychotropic drugs continues despite improvements

The supply of psychotropic drugs in France "remains fragile on the ground despite certain improvements," as with lithium, the drug agency announced on Tuesday, June 10, emphasizing its "numerous actions" to ensure the continuity of several treatments used in mental health.

This observation follows a fourth meeting on June 5 with representatives of healthcare professionals, patients and the drug chain.

While mental health is a "major national cause" in 2025, around fifteen supply tensions and stockouts of psychotropic drugs have been reported by the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM) since the beginning of January.

After quetiapine - a neuroleptic often prescribed to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and certain depressions - supply tensions have affected teralith - lithium salts for bipolar disorder - and common antidepressants, sertraline and venlaxafine.

For quetiapine, the date of re-availability of the extended-release drug remained, as of June 10, "unknown" for the 300 and 400 mg dosages, but coverage of usual needs in 50 mg was "assured", according to the ANSM.

For teralithe, as for sertraline (Zoloft and generics), a re-availability in June is anticipated by the laboratories, knowing that these forecasts "do not include the time taken for availability to patients in pharmacies (3 to 4 weeks)," the agency specified among other things.

For several months, the ANSM has stressed, numerous measures have been taken: bans on exports, imports, restrictions on prescriptions, unit dispensing of tablets, magistral preparations in pharmacies, recommendations for caregivers and patients, etc.

And "in-depth work is underway with representatives of healthcare professionals and patient associations to analyze the therapeutic offering in the field of mental health, with the aim of identifying vulnerabilities (diversity of available galenic forms, alternatives by indication) and the means of responding to them," according to its press release.

The aim is also to take the necessary measures to improve the national supply of psychotropic drugs (adaptation of packaging, identification of new players, diversification of supply chains and operators), the agency added.

Drug shortages in France have been caused by various factors for several years, including outsourcing and a pricing system that the pharmaceutical industry sometimes considers insufficiently profitable.