French government acts to curb drugs bill

The French government will cut healthcare spending by an extra 600 million euros ($735 million) this year, including reducing drug prices by 100 million euros, to meet its healthcare spending budget.

The measures come as European governments are looking to rein in mounting budget deficits and after an independent French expert committee said healthcare spending exceeds this year’s 162.4 billion euro budget by 600 million.

Other measures include a 180-million-euro freeze in government support to hospitals and retirement homes.

“The earlier implementation of the already approved price controls is very modest,” Morgan Stanley said on Tuesday, adding affected drug types involved cholesterol lowering Statins and certain blood pressure lowering drugs known as “sartans.”

French drugmakers include Sanofi-Aventis and Ipsen.

“All necessary savings will be put in place to respect the national spending objective for health insurance,” the health ministry said in a statement.

It said it would stick to its goal of a rise of 3 percent in healthcare spending this year from last.

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PARIS (Reuters)