French drugmakers' growth declining

Drug companies based in France have seen their growth decline under downward pressure on the price of drugs. A new study by Euler Hermes SFAC, a credit assurance specialists, has underlined a steady downward trend in drug prices at global level with growth in 2006 not expected to exceed 1.1% compared with 2% five years ago.

In western Europe, prices have been falling since 2004 at a rate of about 0.5% a year. The study is forecasting a continuation of this trend to the end of the decade, although drug consumption in European Union countries has continued to rise in volume terms, and this has had some offsetting effect.

Meanwhile, drug prices in France are set to record a fall of some 4.8% in 2006 under pressure from government savings measures and the removal of pharmaceutical products from reimbursement (Marketletters passim).