2024-10-23 04:27:00
The sale of Sanofi’s consumer health division is just one manifestation among others of the gradual disengagement of pharmaceutical players from the market for so-called “mature” drugs – that is to say, drugs developed earlier. several years ago, even several decades, have long been “generic” and sold at low prices.
The phenomenon is well known to economists: these drugs are no longer protected by a patent, that is to say by a property right, prices fall and the market is no longer able to produce them in sufficient quantities. Inevitably, supply disruptions endanger many patients who are unable to obtain the treatment prescribed by their doctor.
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The State, in matters of health products, does not intervene directly in the market through production or distribution. It carries out a regulatory mission, trying to reconcile seemingly contradictory objectives: access to medicines for the greatest number of people, control of health spending and industrial attractiveness. However, this regulation is no longer enough.
Offer permanently too low
Budgetary pressure leads the State to drive down the prices of medicines – the pharmaceutical sector also appears to be a politically acceptable source of savings. For 2025, the government is considering more than 1 billion euros in price reductions on health products. However, in a context of international competition, laboratories prioritize countries offering the highest drug prices – this is not the case for France. At the same time, laboratories are moving towards the marketing of innovative drugs, which are protected by a patent and command very high prices. They thus play their social role by pushing the boundaries of health knowledge to improve our living conditions.
Should we therefore consider the hypothesis of an increase in prices in favor of mature drugs to encourage manufacturers to guarantee their availability in France? This may be a relevant solution, although it raises two essential questions. First of all, to what level should we raise prices to be certain that France becomes sufficiently attractive again for pharmaceutical laboratories? Then, is this policy ethical towards countries that do not have the same budgetary capacities? The whole paradox is there: faced with a supply that is permanently too low, while there are dozens of generic substitutes, the rise in prices can be limitless and would be to the detriment of essential public investments.
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