Unfolding Change In The French OTC Market

France's market for non-prescription medicines shows distinct similarities to those which existed in Germany and the UK before 1993. This means restrictions on prescribing, inflexibilities governing promotion and difficulties in gaining approvals for prescription to over-the-counter switches, according to a new report from James Dudley Management, entitled: Self-Medication in France - A Strategic Analysis of Unfolding Change, and this has done little to encourage companies to consumerize their brands.

The report points to the growing concern among drug company managers that the combined pressures of threatened government health care reforms and European Union directives, especially the Classifications of Medicines and the multistate regulatory pathway for marketing approvals could mean that France has to close the 10-year development gap in self-medication markets between itself and Germany in a very short period of time.

However, it warns that while this would without doubt please a number of the highly consumer-orientated multinationals, change on the scale of the German health care environment is not welcome among the majority of French and regional European players, especially if this were forced over a short period of time. The report cites Thomae as a leading German OTC player that has had more than a decade to adapt its semi-ethical business into highly consumer-orientated marketing, but achieving the same thing in France over a much shorter period would cause a massive period of adjustment.