French Drug Prices Remain Below Euro Average: SNIP

In France, the price of reimbursable drugs is regularly decreasing inreal terms, says the SNIP, the country's pharmaceutical manufacturers' association. Moreover, the association goes on, the price level of drugs in France continues to be inferior to that seen in the main European industrialized countries.

Current rates of drug reimbursement in France are 100% for products which are recognized as both irreplaceable and particularly expensive, 35% for drugs used mainly to treat pains and non-serious conditions and 65% for all other medicines. Under certain conditions, eg severe disease or incapacity, social insurers are able to benefit from exemption of the patient's copayment due for the different groups of reimbursable products.

Only 8%-9% of people are exempt from copayment, but their share of drug spending was around 45.3% of the total in 1996, SNIP notes. French consumer spending on drugs is also said to be low. SNIP puts the average per capita spend at 6 French francs ($1.04) per day, compared with 36.3 francs on food and beverages, 11.6 francs on clothing (shoes included), 47.1 francs on housing, heating and lighting, 16.2 francs on entertainment and 3.2 francs of tobacco.