The French government announced on Tuesday that it would cap a financial levy made each year from the pharmaceutical industry, a gesture towards the sector at a time when it is engaged in difficult negotiations with the State with a view to the 2024 budget.
This levy has increased significantly year after year, admitted the Minister for Industry Roland Lescure, in an interview with Les Echos.
This is the escape clause. This drain on the sector is indexed to the latter’s turnover. However, it has increased significantly in recent years, against a backdrop of soaring health spending.
The subject is a point of tension between the State and the pharmaceutical sector which judges that this levy has reached a very excessive level, in the midst of negotiations on the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS).
If we did nothing, the growth of the market would lead us to collect 1.7 billion this year and more than 2 billion in 2024, admitted Mr. Lescure. With Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, we have decided to put an end to this logic.
The estimated yield of the clause will thus be lowered to 1.6 billion for 2023 and stabilized at this level next year, he said, referring to a very significant effort on the part of the State.
However, this measure remains well below the recommendations of a group of experts commissioned by Matignon a few months ago.
This group, which had however been the subject of criticism due to the proximity deemed excessive of its members with the pharmaceutical sector, had recommended reducing the levy by a maximum of 500 million euros.
Such an objective could be possible in the long term, but would require in-depth changes, said Mr. Lescure.
The minister also referred later, that is to say to the parliamentary debates in the coming weeks on the Health Insurance budget, a possible response to another demand from the sector: specific arrangements for producers of generics, medicines that have fallen into the public domain.
More broadly, Mr. Lescure announced the government’s intention to play not only on prices but also on the volumes of reimbursed medicines, without specifying the measures envisaged other than by saying that they were taking inspiration from other countries.