"Some are worth €10,000 a box": will recycled medicines soon be used to combat waste?

The idea is divisive. With savings in mind and a divisive 2026 budget, Catherine Vautrin, the Minister of Health, announced several proposals at the end of July to curb spending . Among them, a not-so-new idea: reusing and putting back on the market unused drugs after tests.

Although the idea is not yet more detailed, pharmacies do not seem particularly pleased and are having difficulty imagining how such a measure could be effective without public health issues. Not to mention a new packaging with instructions , before a new distribution.

A headache before its time for the general public, announces Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Community Pharmacists.

"An antibiotic tablet costs 20 euro cents. The cost of handling, monitoring and making them available again is not worth it," he said on RMC .

By proposing this new approach, Catherine Vautrin aims to reduce medication waste by €1.5 billion per year. With this in mind, repackaging can be economically attractive if the medication costs more than €10 per unit.

"Some are very expensive, worth 10,000 euros per box. For a cancer patient, unfortunately, if they die, it would be a shame if a box that could be reused were to be destroyed. By donating it to a hospital, control procedures can be carried out and the medication can be reused," adds Philippe Besset.

Currently, it is possible to return used or expired medications to any pharmacy, where they are then collected by the recycling system called Cyclamed. They are then incinerated.

According to a study conducted by BVA and revealed by BFMTV, 82% of French people say they return their unused medication to the pharmacy at least once a year.

The idea of repurposing medicines was already implemented in the 1990s, when organizations like Pharmacists Without Borders repurposed expired but still usable medicines for use in war-torn countries. A practice that was stopped by the WHO, which eventually banned it.