Generic Prescribing Urged In France

France's persistently high drug spending, rising 7.9% in the last l2 months, has convinced most companies and groups in the sector that significant economies are essential.

The industry association SNIP has urged doctors to curb costly prescribing (Marketletter June 17) and the CNAM health fund has now written to every doctor recommending generic prescribing as often as possible, stating that eight generic antibiotics and heart drugs could save 534 million French francs ($103.1 million) of annual reimbursement spending of 3.3 billion francs ($ 637.2 million). Another fund says it will provide every doctor with a guide to generics.

Moreover, Social Affairs Minister Jacques Barrot has told the inauguration of Servier's new research center in Orleans that "the most economic form of prescription" is now "a moral obligation" for doctors, and that the development of generics, "whose presence on the French market still remains limited," is a priority. His emphasis that generics must meet the same quality, safety and efficacy demands as original drugs was seen by some observers as an attempt to reassure concerned doctors. Mr Barrot reminded the French drug industry that it had to adapt to a newly-emerging world in which there was no spending without evaluation.