Fournier Fights Back Over Generics Case

The French pharmaceutical company Fournier has launched a legal actionin Lyon against the Mutualite Francaise health insurance group, claiming damages of 50 million French francs ($9.1 million) over the distribution by MF to French doctors of a guide to generic drugs, in which price comparisons with original drugs are made.

Fournier lost a preliminary legal round last year in Paris, when an appeal court permitted the distribution of the MF guide, which had originally been barred (Marketletter November 4, 1996). According to Fournier's director general, Bernard Majoie, what the company wants now is a fundamental judgement on the issue.

The micronized version of Fournier's Lipanthyl (fenofibrate), a lipid-lowering product, is the only original drug in the MF guide still protected by patent, and is compared with the non-micronized version, which is patent-expired and 50% cheaper. The two specialties are not identical in terms of French law, and therefore, Fournier argues, they are not comparable. The Paris court had said that they were comparable but, according to Fournier's legal adviser, Alexandre Varaut, the MF guide is "an appeal pure and simple to boycott the drug."