It’s not just at the supermarket or at the gas pump that prices are skyrocketing. At the pharmacy counter, checkout has also become more painful for the French. Diapers for babies, dermatological creams, feminine hygiene products, food supplements, toothpaste… For the past year, the labels of parapharmacy items and medicines sold without a prescription have been waltzing on the shelves of pharmacies.
A dance in prices which has accelerated in recent weeks, following commercial negotiations between suppliers and pharmacy brands, which ended on 1er March. “ In thirty years of work, I had never seen that. Usually, the increases claimed were around 2% or 2.5%, there they were multiplied by three or four.observes David Abenhaim, president of Pharmabest, which brings together 112 pharmacies.
An observation shared by the entire sector. “The laboratories arrived at the negotiating table with dizzying increases of more than 10%confirms Pascal Fontaine, commercial director of the Lafayette pharmacy network. We have struggled to contain price increases between 3% and 4%, which seems to us to be a fair reflection of the reality of inflation. We must not forget that these are health products such as healing or moisturizing creams, not reimbursed, and yet used by patients with cancer, skin diseases or who are coming out of surgery. »
“The big manufacturers have taken advantage of it”
Of the 300 agreements negotiated each year by the brand, only the one signed with the Ineldea laboratory, a manufacturer of infant food supplements whose commercial proposals have been judged “unacceptable”was not renewed. “The products will be dereferenced and replaced by equivalent alternative solutions”emphasizes Mr. Fontaine.
At Pharmabest, these are Pampers nappies, marketed by Procter & Gamble, “whose price has soared by 30%”explains Mr. Abenhaim, and baby milk from the Gallia brand (Danone), “with an increase” requested “by 18%”which will disappear from the shelves of its pharmacies, in favor of small local brands with less greedy prices. “The small laboratories were reasonable, but the large, well-established manufacturers took advantage of this, especially on their best-selling products”he points out.
The budget of young parents is particularly put to the test. A popular product for infants, saline has soared 46% in one year, according to data from Pharmazon, a purchasing platform that supplies nearly 2,000 French pharmacies. “In this specific case, the price increase was justified, the increase in transport costs no longer allowing the laboratory to be profitable on this product. But this is far from being the case for all advanced rises »explains Audrey Lecoq, its founder.
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