No matter which political party is in power, France remains committed tothe principle that anyone who needs drug therapy should receive it, regardless of its cost or the length of treatment. No political party disputes this; they differ only in their approach to how universal access should be provided, a pharmaceutical industry meeting in Paris last week was told, the day after the Socialist Administration was voted in with a resounding majority.
Claude Beraud, vice president of the French government's Transparency Commission, told Management Centre Europe's Annual International Pharmaceutical meeting that the pro-marketeer approach of the right-wing Juppe government has been replaced by an administration which believes public health is a matter for government, and he hoped that new Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's administration will make available the necessary regulatory and financial resources to enable the provision of general access to medicines according to need.
Asked if general access is assured to even the most expensive drugs, Prof Beraud noted that over the last few years only one drug, sumatriptan (Glaxo Wellcome's Imigran) in tablet form, has been denied reimbursement by the French health insurance funds, and was thus very little prescribed outside the state system. This antimigraine drug is, however, reimbursable in the injectable form.
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