“At the end of April 2025, 100 pharmacies have abandoned the curtain since January 260 closed last year, how far we will go?”, Laroms Pierre-Lolivier VarioT, president of the Union of Pharmacist Unions (OPSPO). Since July 1, these daily health professionals, who have issued patients their medications prescribed by their doctor, have been in “unlimited” guards to defend the reimbursements that currently benefit from generic purchases of laboratory medications.
At the origin of this movement, the opinion of the Social Alert Committee, published on June 18, anticipating a skate of the Speption National Malie Insurance (ONDAM) of around 1.3 billion euros. The document mentioned the effort, provided by the Social Security Financing Law (LFSS) for 2025, of 100 million euros to save forcing generic medication manufacturers to reduce their prices.
The price reductions that must, as the alert committee recalls, “condition for the publication of a decree that reduces the roof rate of commercial discounts (which, therefore, benefits pharmacists, the editor’s note) on the genericians and the establishment of a ceiling rate for hybrid and substitutable biosimilar medications.” This ministerial text is not published in the official magazine, “the economy of 100 million euros provided for generic drugs is not acquired,” said the alert committee.
Foster generic drugs
The day after the publication of the opinion of the Alert Committee, the Social Security Directorate (DSS) hastened to gather interested parties, namely, the pharmaceutical, wholesaler and Leem unions, the French pharmaceutical laboratories lobby. This is where things are complicated:
To encourage them to offer generic, pharmacies can benefit from discounts by laboratories up to 40% of the price, excluding the tax of these products. These discounts allow pharmacies to balance their accounts as they represent, depending on the organization of 30% of the gross operational surplus of an average pharmacy. But it is a deficit for the State since taxes are applied at a lower purchase price.
At the moment, a decree dated July 1 has extended the current roof rate in a month, established by 40%. Approved on August 1, if the consultations made by Social Security with pharmaceutical, wholesale-directors and pharmaceutical laboratories do not lead to a new agreement, logically at a lower roof rate of around 20 or 25%, then the roof of commercial discounts on the genericians will align with that of the “prinipes” (brand, note, note, note, note). This would be dramatic for pharmacists, whose discounts currently benefit that they represent “30% of the gross operating surplus (EBE) of pharmacies”, Pointe Pierre-Olivier Varioot. “Pharmacies will put the key under the door,”.
Confrontation with the lips
In addition, these commercial discounts and supervised by public authorities also have the interest of encouraging pharmacists to replace princeps drugs with generic. As are on average 30% cheaper, they allow social security to generate substantial savings, in the order of 1.6 billion euros per year according to health insurance figures. In 2014, the authorities noticed the ceiling rate of commercial discounts granted by laboratories on generic from 17% to 40%.
The fact is that when listening to the pharmaceutical unions he would abound in the sense of pharmaceutical laboratories that make the grimace in the face of expected price reductions in generic medicines, despite the fact that their prices are low.
Fight against drug scarcity
But when demanding price reduction laboratories in generic medicines at prices that are already lower than brand medications, the government is risking the risk of stirring the shortage of medicines. If the discounts that the pharmacists who take advantage of, it is remarkably because “it is the generic medications that are in shortage,” Nathalie Coutinet, professor of Economics at the University of Paris 13 with BFM businesses will be planned.
“The challenge is that manufacturers have an attractive price to continue producing generic medicines. As pharmacists benefit from commercial discounts supervised by the State, this reduces the margins of laboratories that do not encourage to produce,” concludes the economist.
Source: BFM TV
