French pharmacists face govt "provocation"

France's Ministry of Health has announced proposals to cut pharmacy margins on the sale of reimbursable prescription drugs in 2009 to save an estimated 100.0 million euros ($144.3 million) a year. Details of the project are still at the drawing-board stage but leaked news of the planned reductions has enraged pharmacists.

Philippe Gaertner, president of the French Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions (FSPF), which combines local pharmacy associations, said any direct action on margins was "unacceptable." The FSPF argues that its members are already contributing to propping up the health budget. The 2009 budget envisages savings in the drug sector alone of 700.0 million euros, by lowering prices on some products and tightening controls on physicians' prescribing. The FSPF says that, while drugmakers will suffer from lower prices, this will indirectly hit retailers, as their own revenue levels decline. Mr Gaertner said the drug-sector measures will already cut their margins by 200.0 million euros. Another pharmacists' organization states that margins fell 2.7% in the first eight months of 2008.

The Health Ministry insists that no final decision has yet been taken but the social security accountability body, the CCSS, says the pharmacy sector accounts for a quarter of the cost of drugs in France with margins of 5.0 billion euros a year. In another recent provocation to the FSPF, the auditors for the various government health care reimbursement authorities stated that there are "too many pharmacies" in France and that 5,172 of them, or 23% of the national total, must close down for greater efficiency.