ABSTRACT
Many of the controls in France, whether price–volume contracts, promotional taxes or recent potential limitations on physician visits for certain therapeutic classes are focused on control of drug utilization. Prices are initially planned to be renegotiated after five years, but conditions for prices to be renegotiated are rather broad, including whenever “conditions that led to the price setting” have changed and/or new data is being released in France or the EU and/or significant changes in volume is observed. France has had a reference price system since 2003, which is only used for reimbursement determination for generics. In theory, France has free pricing for pharmaceuticals. However, prices for reimbursed drugs are controlled through the Economic Committee. Very few drugs have been launched with commercial success without reimbursement. The French healthcare system has one of the most tightly managed controls on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.
