France Moves To Bolster Drug Supplies Hit By COVID-19

France’s simplification bill is a “first step” to improving the country’s clinical research environment, but more could be done to drive decentralized trials and simplify processes, says Leem, the French pharmaceutical industry association.

A new methodology for measuring pharmaceutical company carbon footprints could lead to a single standard for producing these calculations that is applicable to all medicines sold in France, said the industry association, Leem. However, it warned that there remains uncertainty about how the methodology will work in practice.

Some changes to the contentious social security financing bill have been made, but industry and the government remain at odds over a €1.2bn drugs overspend.

France’s health technology appraisal body, HAS, is putting more emphasis on the importance of economic evaluations in light of the rising costs of health technologies, including medicines and medical devices, and increasing budgetary pressures.