After months of negotiations, the price of Doliprane will drop by 40%. But patients won’t see the color – they’ll only save a dime on the box. Explanations.
There are no small savings. This Monday, the best-selling drug in France will cost a penny less. Patients will have to pay 1.94 euros to get a box, instead of 1.95 euros.
However, it is permissible to ignore this good news. Because it comes after a long industrial and media battle, at the end of which contradictory information kept coming in.
Generate paracetamol
It all dates back to July 2013, when the Competition Authority pointed out the privileges enjoyed by paracetamol (Doliprane and Efferalgan). Its patent has fallen into the public domain and as such, the molecule should appear on the directory of genericable drugs.
However “paracetamol is legally substituted everywhere in Europe, with the exception of France”, underlines the Authority. The National Medicines Safety Agency is therefore opening a procedure for registration on the list of generics to correct these undue advantages, and relieve the Health Insurance, which reimburses nearly 500 million boxes per year.
Panic at Sanofi
At Sanofi, which produces these drugs, it is panic. Doliprane represents 12% of turnover. The opening up to competition darkens the future prospects of the laboratory. A showdown begins between the authorities and the pharmaceutical group, which threatens to relocate jobs in India. After months of negotiations, the state gives in. He agrees not to generate the drug, but demands a single price from the laboratories, which has dropped sharply (-40%).
The French had stopped there. In the press, a few days ago, they learned that the price of Doliprane was going to drop to 1.12 euros at the beginning of January, then to 1.08 euros including tax on 1 November 2015. That is to say almost 1 euro of savings.
Remuneration of pharmacists
In reality, patients will not benefit from this reduction in prices. Because another provision came into force at the beginning of January: “the dispensation fee”. This is a change in the remuneration of pharmacists, now based on the number of drugs sold rather than their price. Concretely, pharmacists receive 0.82 euros per box sold. On Doliprane, the patient will therefore only earn a euro cent.
Nothing to rave about, then. But for Health Insurance, the account is there. This measure will allow him to save tens of millions of euros, by reducing the costs related to the reimbursement of the preferred analgesic of the French. As for paracetamol, it will not be listed in the generic list before 2016.
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