Poor 2006 for French drugmakers goes on

2006 is being described as a black one for drugmakers operating in France with a market stagnating for the first time in 10 years. Some companies were badly affected by government moves to reduce the social security deficit and ease pressure on the health service budget with product removals from the list of reimbursable drugs, a downturn in drug prescriptions and the advance of the generics sector.

The leading French company, Sanofi-Aventis, posted a 9% drop in domestic market sales for 2006 to 3.0 billion ($3.95 billion), according to a survey from the GERS consultancy and the good performance of the company's leading drug, the anticoagulant Plavix (clopidogrel), was not offset by the poor performance of some other products. Vasten (pravastatin) sales fell 35% under generics pressure and the antihypertensive Triatec (ramipril) went down 56%. But still worse, the problems experienced in 2006 look set to continue this year, with Plavix being targeted for special treatment.

The national health funds union, Uncam, has said doctors are prescribing too much Plavix and signed an agreement with the medical unions which lay down guidelines for "good usage" under which aspirin may be prescribed instead of Plavix in certain cases. The aim is to reduce the spending on reimbursement for Plavix and save about 50.0 million euros a year. Uncam said Plavix prescriptions in France were the highest in Europe.