According to a study, the majority of French people are in favor of the free sale of non-prescription drugs. They prefer the drugstore, even if it is in supermarkets.
Are you ready to buy your non-prescription drugs anywhere other than a pharmacy? This is the question asked to the French during the last survey (1) carried out by Ipsos for the retail chain E. Leclerc. According to these results, most French people would be in favor of selling non-reimbursed drugs outside pharmacies.
The French have confidence in supermarkets
In figures, 54% of people questioned are ready to buy non-prescription drugs elsewhere than in pharmacies. The proposal even rises to 61% for seniors (55-75 years).
And when the place mentioned is a drugstore, the French are then 77% to be ready to buy their “OTC” (Over The Counter) drugs called “free stomach”. The number of these French people who trust the drugstore even reaches 85% among those who buy it several times a month.
By specifying “large-area drugstores”, the proportion remains at 71% of French people. Good news for Michel-Edouard Leclerc, CEO of the Leclerc group, who has long wanted to abolish the monopoly of pharmacies on these products.
Half of drug purchases are made without advice
Another point revealed by the study: the choice of non-prescription drugs is influenced as much by the advice of a pharmacist (55%) as by habits: 49% say that they always take the same drugs without a prescription. Advice from another professional in the field, the doctor (17%), faces competition in this area by advice from friends and family (11%) or looking for information on the Internet (7%).
The price, the first motivation drugstore purchases
So how to explain this choice of the French? For a large majority of the people questioned (80%), the sale of OTC in large-scale drugstores would allow them to benefit from more competitive prices and to a lesser extent, greater speed of service (56%).
Nevertheless, 71% of the people questioned would buy neither more nor less non-reimbursed drugs if they were available in drugstores.
As a reminder, while the government should make its final choices on this subject known soon, the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine declared herself again in early September in favor of maintaining the pharmaceutical monopoly.
(1) The Ipsos survey was carried out from September 19 to 22, 2014, by Internet, via the Ipsos iOmnibus, with a representative sample of 1,011 French people aged 16 to 75.
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