Clamoxyl - the Fate Of The Branded Drug; French View

The fate of the branded drug under the impact of generic competition wasoutlined at a recent conference in Paris, France, organized by the financial daily Les Echos (see also Marketletter May 5), by Henri Phillipart, president of SmithKline Beecham in France.

Perfect Harmony In The Past SB's Clamoxyl brand had a 55% share of France's amoxicillins market in 1995, and its generic copies held the balance, he told delegates. "We were living in perfect harmony," Mr Phillipart said. A number of generic copies had been on the market since 1981, but there was a context of normal competition in which "the noise from the generics" pushed Clamoxyl as a branded item, while the celebrity of the brand fed the totality of the amoxicillins sector. Then, he pointed out, doctors were free to prescribe Clamoxyl or a generic.

However, in July 1996, under the Juppe economic reform plan in France and the reduction of health spending, the CNAM health fund organization sent a letter to doctors, encouraging them to substitute the original active principle with a generic on a systematic basis. The letter was accompanied by a comparative price table and details of the economies expected by social security. Once the advice had been issued against the prescribing of the brand, he said, "Clamoxyl became quasi illegal." Mr Phillipart added that this has meant the disappearance of free choice for the doctor accompanied by the application of a financial sanction.