Reimbursement and Pricing of Drugs in France

Abstract

1999 was marked in France by the publication of numerous texts of laws and decrees specifying the method for fixing the prices of reimbursable drugs in France. While the situation regarding non-reimbursable drugs is fairly similar to that of other consumer goods, the French administration keeps reimbursable drugs within a controlled price system in an attempt to contain the cost of their reimbursement by Social Security. In this article we will analyse the framework of laws and regulations behind the pricing system in France as well as the way in which prices are fixed by the Economic Committee for Health Products following the opinion of the Transparency Commission on the reimbursable nature of those medicines. Quite apart from these two topics, it is interesting to analyse the increasingly important role of the new structures regulating the prices of those drugs. Opinions are, to say the least, divided as to whether such a complex system, when viewed from the outside, meets the objective set by the French Administration and whether a trend towards more European pricing structures is now emerging.