In France, the self-medication market is down 3% according to a press release from the Afipa association (French association of the pharmaceutical industry for responsible self-medication).
The 2013 self-medication barometer carried out on a panel of 3,004 pharmacies reveals that drugs sold without a prescription in 2013 posted a 3% decrease in sales in value, i.e. in turnover, representing a market of more than 2 billion euros.
“Until now showing significant dynamism and continuous growth, the self-medication market has experienced its first development in five years, under the effect of a difficult economic context” explains Pascal Brossard, President of Afipa.
France lagging behind European countries
The results of this survey confirm the findings made by the first European Self-medication Observatory, made public by Afipa in June 2013. It revealed that France was lagging behind European countries. In fact, the total sale of non-prescription drugs represented 15.9% of purchases. It was 23.3% among our close neighbors.
Paradoxically, the prices of self-medication have been steadily decreasing for 6 years in France and they are lower than in our European neighbors.
“But this halt for the medicationsself-medication ”represents for Pascal Brossard“ a real danger for the organization and efficiency of the healthcare system, both in terms of cost for Social Security and overload of work for general practitioners. “
Therefore, Pascal Brossard calls “for the support of the public authorities and the rapid implementation of pragmatic actions.” He wants “the enlargement of the list of products available in self-medication, better patient information or even adapted training for healthcare professionals to guarantee the development of responsible self-medication in the region and to catch up with France’s backwardness compared to other European countries. ”
However, poorly controlled self-medication can be risky. For example, the magazine 60 Million Consumers has just published a study on anti-cold drugs, revealing that the cumulative use of several of these drugs could have disastrous consequences such as cardiovascular or neurological accidents.