Price accord to revolutionize OTC marketing in France

The changes in the pharmaceutical regulations are expected to bring greater price competition to the OTC sector, which until now had been dominated by the pharmacists who rarely displayed the prices of the self-medication products kept behind their counters. The competitive pricing is expected to lower the drug prices.

The consumer associations in France contended that people were forced to shell more money since the government initiated a series of cuts from the reimbursement list in 2003. They also criticized the manufacturers and retailers for charging excessive prices to prescription and OTC medicines.

But Leem, the French pharmaceutical industry association, while acknowledging the consumers’s concerns about price increases contended that promotion costs and sales taxes were also partly responsible for the increase in drug prices. The association has also signed an accord with pharmacists’s representatives and the French self-medication association (Afipa) to make medicines accessible to all patients and promote transparent commercial relationships.

According to Roselyne Bachelot, the health minister, the French government plans to introduce legislation allowing pharmacists to form centralized purchasing and distribution organisations. The minister also intends to publish a list of products eligible for self-medication status at the end of May, 2008.