Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8924
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Le Pen C.
Drug pricing and reimbursement in France. Towards a new model?
Pharmacoeconomics. 1996; 10:(Suppl 2):26-36.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10163433
Abstract:
The pharmaceutical market in France is characterised by low prices and high sales volumes. Despite these advantageous market conditions, the French pharmaceutical industry has in general been an underperformer in the global context. Acknowledgement of the contributory role made by state regulation of drug expenditures in creating this situation has resulted in a number of attempts to correct problems within the market. At best, these have achieved only temporary improvements. Since 1993, however, a new drug policy, which emphasises voluntary moderation by physicians of their own prescribing activities rather than the use of budgetary means to cut expenditures, has been in operation in France. This ‘medicalised strategy’ involves 2 main instruments, viz., a list of guidelines for clinical practice (References Medicales Opposables) and a set of ‘industrial conventions’ (agreed between each drug company and the government) for determining drug prices. While it is too early at this stage to determine whether these new approaches will be beneficial in the long term, some changes in drug prescribing have already been observed, and it is clear that the new policy has also encouraged more healthy relationships between policymakers, the medical profession, and the pharmaceutical industry in France.
Keywords:
Cost Control
Costs and Cost Analysis/economics
Costs and Cost Analysis/statistics & numerical data*
Drug Costs/legislation & jurisprudence*
Drug Industry/economics*
France
Health Care Reform
Health Expenditures/legislation & jurisprudence*
Insurance, Health/economics
Reimbursement Mechanisms/economics
