French Pharmacists Seek Substitution Right

France's two leading professional pharmacy groups are making the rightto substitute one generic drug for another a basic precondition of final agreement with the government on health service economies. A global package was expected to be signed in Paris last week covering spending growth in the sector and agreements on margins, but a deal is not now expected before end-March.

The leading pharmacy groups have meanwhile set out the main principles that any agreement must recognize. The main organization, the FSPF, has the support of 80% of its members for a return to a linear margin on reimbursable drugs. The current pharmacy margin is degressive, ie it decreases in relation to rises in the drug price. This system has been of considerable benefit to the French drug industry, in allowing firms to recover some of their own margins to the detriment, it is argued, of the distribution sector.

The new deal envisages a margin proportional to the price of the drug up to a ceiling of about 230 French francs ($40.31). Above this ceiling, a "residual supplementary margin" of 4% would be applied.