#pharmacost

Around the world, high medicine prices are challenging healthcare systems and leading to different responses from stakeholders. In France, the Court of Auditors raised a warning in its last annual report published in September 2014, showing that France is spending too much money on expensive drugs, with detrimental impacts on the social security deficit. The report also outlines the dire situation of the generic market in France which is confirmed by the last Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Health (OECD) at a Glancereport. More than half of drugs prescribed in France do not have a generic equivalent. In 2011, generics accounted for only one quarter of the pharmaceuticals market in France compared to three quarters in Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Denmark. In light of this, the Court has called for radical reforms, including the adoption of an incentive strategy whereby doctors are giving targets to prescribe generic treatments and penalised financially if they fail to meet them. This proposal is based on the German model which was first introduced in the 1990s.

In parallel, in the United States, the recently published Evaluate’s report revealed that the average price of the top 100 drugs has increased seven fold (from $1,260 in 2010 to $9,400 in 2014) while the average patient population size served by these drugs has gone down significantly (from $690,000 in 2010 to $146,000 in 2014). This shift to high-priced medicines treating smaller patient population sizes is causing friction between payers and the pharmaceutical industry.