ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the situation in the French pharmaceutical market and offers some ideas about what to expect in the future. There are two price regimens in France. The institutional framework for the pricing and reimbursement system in France involves a two-step process. The first step relates to reimbursement, and the institution involved is the Transparency Commission. The second step of the institutional framework involves setting the price of the medicine, once positive advice for reimbursement has been given. The Transparency Commission uses a very formal approach to drug evaluation. The Transparency Commission examines about 500 dossiers each year, most of which concern new indications of already-marketed products, while the rest deal with new products. The Health Products Economic Committee examines about 1000 dossiers per year, which involves around 500 new products. The post-launch studies should preferably use health insurance claims data. The scope of the reform has related to healthcare professionals and health insurance firms.
