The anger of pharmacists is not weakened. After the strikes of the unlimited guards initiated in early July, many pharmacies will not open to the public this Saturday, August 16. Run by unions, mobilization must be followed widely, to 90% in certain departments.
It should be said that pharmacists are particularly concerned about the future of their profession, more and more pharmacies that have put the key under the door in recent years. “In the last 15 years, 4,000 pharmacies have closed …
According to the figures communicated by the union of frames of Frame pharmacists (OPPO), “one in three pharmacy is in danger” and “6,000 municipalities could lose their pharmacy.”
Fonda travelers in generic drugs
To these concerns that do not date yesterday, recent decisions are added, taken by the Government, which arouse the misunderstanding of pharmacists.
In early August, in early August, after repeatedly rejected the time to surround the angles with the unions, the Ministries of Health and the economy have ratified, through a decree published in the official magazine, the dreaded plane on the commercial discounts applied to generic drugs. As of September 1, the discounts granted by laboratories to pharmacies will be limited to 30% maximum, against 40% currently. And these roofs will be gradually reduced to reach 20% on July 1, 2027.
These decreases in ceilings represent a significant deficit, of the order of “300 million euros in a full year” according to the figures advanced by Pierre-Loivier Variot, president of the Union of Pharmaceutical Unions (OPSPO), with BFM businesses. As a result, pharmacies that have not reached a certain critical size, especially in villages, could not endure.
By reducing commercial discounts ceilings in generic, the government, above all, would make a gesture for pharmaceutical laboratories according to pharmaceutical unions. In a context marked by the shortage of medicines, manufacturers regularly press the health authorities, denouncing too low prices in France by the Economic Committee of Health Products (CEPS), an agency associated with the Ministry of Health and access to care.
However: the choice to advance the roofs of commercial discounts in the genericians, who benefit pharmacies, remains “incomprehensible” according to Philippe Besset, since “this does not contribute money to health insurance.”
Refuse to collect medical franchises
Pharmaceutical unions also pose furiously against the government’s budgetary economies. The public finance recovery plan presented by François Bayrou on July 15 provides 43.8 billion euros in savings of 2026, including 5.5 billion in the field of health.
And to achieve this, it is already planned to duplicate the medical franchises and the participations of flat rates, these little sums today discreetly deducted from their refunds of medicines and medical consultations for health insurance. A measure denounced by patient associations, but also by health professionals in the broad sense.
To “get out of the illusion at all”, as suggest by employer organizations, the Minister of Labor, Health, Solidarity and families of Catherine Vautrin want patients directly paying the drug franchises in the drugs in the Comptoir Des officines. This dislikes pharmacists who refuse to be “transformed into a tax collector.”
Source: BFM TV
