The Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF) announced on Friday June 7 that it had signed new pricing conditions with Health Insurance, thus committing the entire profession which had put pressure on it at the end of May with a massive strike. “The latest proposals from Health Insurance include increases in fees which will make it possible to secure the activity of pharmacy companies and will ensure essential support for local pharmacies,” said the FSPF in a press release.
Certain increases will take place “from this year and next year, in particular an increase in dispensing fees, on-call fees and on-call payments”, detailed the majority union. The commitment will also result in “a subsidy, of up to 20,000 euros, to pharmacies in difficulty”, rejoices the FSPF which notes however that, “however, the future of the pharmacy is not guaranteed”. Health Insurance, for its part, welcomed the “agreement given by the main pharmacists’ union, the FSPF, to its proposed amendment to the convention”, noting that “this agreement legally validates this amendment”.
“It will make it possible to secure the territorial network of pharmacies in our country, in particular through financial aid to pharmacies located in fragile areas,” indicates Health Insurance. This will also make it possible to “support the commitment of pharmacists in new public health missions (in particular the use of rapid tests), to strengthen the fight against fraud and drug trafficking and to promote the development of biosimilar drugs” .
New regulatory framework
According to the FSPF, the amendment to the pharmacists’ convention also provides for a “negotiation meeting with the CNAM, mid-2026, accompanied by a guarantee of maintaining the resources of the pharmacy network”, the union pleading for conventional negotiations annuals. The FSPF welcomes the commitment of the Minister Delegate in charge of Health, Frédéric Valletoux, “to soon publish a decree” which grants pharmacists the same margin for biosimilar medicines as for original medicines.
She also welcomes the establishment of a new regulatory framework which will give them the possibility of negotiating the purchase price with laboratories as for generics. Until now, community pharmacists said they were losing money by substituting biological medicines (distinct from chemical medicines) with a similar type of cheaper medicine, like generics. “This changes the economic situation quite a bit” because “it allows us to fully commit to substitution and save health insurance money,” Philippe Besset, president of the FSPF, told AFP.
The second union, the Union of Community Pharmacists’ Unions (Uspo), refused to sign as it stands, while reserving the possibility of doing so “perhaps later” if there is a commitment of the government to grant remuneration for the substitution of biosimilars. “The elements are not sufficient today to say that the network will be saved”, justified its president, Pierre-Olivier Variot, saying he did not understand “why pharmacists’ fees are not increased by at least 20% , as for doctors.
“They see a million patients per day, pharmacists see 4 million,” he emphasizes. Conventional negotiations began at the end of 2023.