Pfizer urges French govt over drug prices

Pfizer is due to meet France's Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, early nextyear, as part of the company's moves to get the government to change its controversial policies on drug pricing.

Last month, Pfizer called for a two-tier pricing system in France, with a premium being charged for the most innovative new drugs and the prices of older products allowed to fall. The firm now says it will call on other drug majors to join its campaign for reform of the pricing system and, according to the Financial Times, it has threatened not to launch new drugs in France unless it is permitted to charge higher prices for them.

The majors are also considering what action to take over the highly controversial price-cutting policy adopted recently to shore up France's health and social security sector budgets (Marketletters passim). This will affect 121 firms and 431 products including, to the industry's particular fury, many which are effective and therefore widely prescribed. The companies have said that if their request to cancel the price cuts affecting their products is turned down by the Economic Committee on Health Products, they will probably appeal to the Council of State and, possibly, the European Court of Justice.