French pharma negativity in govt price cut talks

Mixed responses emerged after a day of discussions on health servicereforms held by French Labor Minister Elisabeth Guigou and Health Minister Bernard Kouchner with doctors, the pharmaceutical industry and other health sector organizations (Marketletter July 16).

Industry group SNIP president Bernard Lemoine and Claude Maffioli, president of the CSMF doctors' group, were reported to be strongly negative, but Mr Kouchner said the meeting was only a prelude to further talks. Ms Guigou said she had taken note of worsening relations between health professions and social security, and promised a new "architecture of agreement." However, the major employers' organization, Medef, said after the talks that they could only see more reasons for getting out of the social security system altogether.

The SNIP said the drug industry regretted the small amount of time allocated to discussions on the role of drugs in the health service, and added that the talks should not obscure the fact that therapeutic innovation has now been penalized harshly, with "authoritarian" price cuts on leading drugs.