European Pharma Retailing Survey

Private health insurance is held by 78% of households in France, over two and a half times the European average of 30%, says a new Datamonitor study, European Pharmaceutical retailing, which covers France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, belgium, Spain and the UK.

There are two reasons for this, it says. First, France's health care system requires people to pay 25%-30% of all health care costs themselves, and relatively inexpensive private insurance exists simply to cover these costs. Also, the French are keen to consume a large amount of health care, and thus to have complete cover. Germany has the second-highest percentage of private cover, but is a long way behind France at around 25%, followed by the UK, Spain and Italy.

In the UK, the market is unusual in that large chains of pharmacies exist (in most European countries, pharmacists must be independent). The UK market has seen a good deal of acquisition activity, especially by the second-largest chain, lloyds Chemists. While the growth of this group has been significant, the number of outlets operated by the leading chain, Boots, has remained relatively constant. However, the UK provision of pharmacies is low, as the large chains are unwilling to establish small local pharmacies, and there are also many dispensing doctors. The lowest provision of pharmacies is in the Netherlands, where the pharmacist qualification can only be gained at one of two universities, limiting the number of pharmacies.