NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, May 5, 2016

France is leading calls for the G7 to act against the inflation of medicine prices. Treatment costs are rising in rich countries, but can be even higher in the developing world. EurActiv France reports.

The high price of medication places the health systems of many developed countries under great strain. Faced with an increasingly acute situation, France’s President François Hollande has called on world leaders to act.

The French president signed an editorial published in the medical review The Lancet, in which he raised the issue of the exponential increase in the price of medicines over recent years, particularly for new treatments against cancer and hepatitis C.

In the editorial, the president said that France had “taken the initiative to mobilise the G7”. A meeting of the health ministers of the world’s seven richest countries (the United States, Japan Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada) is due to focus on improving coordination between the regulatory authorities, the pharmaceuticals industry and patients.