MORE FRENCH COST MOVES "USELESS"

The French drug market fell 2.5% in the first four months of 1994 compared to the same period of 1993. In 1993, French drug sales rose 8.5%.

The drug industry association SNIP says the downturn reflects the measures to control health care spending concluded recently with pharmaceutical companies. SNIP president Bernard Mesure says that "month after month" the figures confirm that the new system has been shaped correctly; SNIP expects figures for the next few months to underpin the new trend. Taking account of the flu epidemic last winter, sales in fourth-quarter 1994 should be lower than those in the fourth-quarter 1993, and SNIP says it is now "useless" to take extra action to control drug spending.

Instead, it wants to push ahead with application of the framework agreement concluded at the beginning of 1994, related to the government's 1994 drug expenditure growth target of 0.7%. Detailed agreements are being concluded with manufacturers on an individual company basis. Some 20 groups, accounting for 60% of French drug sales, have already reached agreements with the authorities, and these will be signed shortly, according to SNIP.