Six months before the presidential election, health manufacturers are increasing their proposals to influence future directions, pleading to facilitate access to innovations in France. Tuesday it was the turn of the group of French health manufacturers (G5 Santé) and that of medical device companies (prostheses, pacemakers, blood pressure monitors, etc.), Snitem, to present their manifestos against a backdrop of “increasing budgetary constraints”. Before them, the professional union of foreign pharmaceutical giants in France (Leem) took part in the exercise at the end of September.
All of them warn the presidential candidates against a risk of decline of the sector in France and demand “a multi-year programming law”, like that devoted to defense. “Health industries must be considered as a strategic priority in the same way as defense, energy or digital technology,” insists the G5 Santé, a think tank which brings together the leaders of Guerbet, Ipsen, LFB, Pierre Fabre, Sanofi, Servier, Théa and bioMérieux.
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The sector regularly warns of a “dropping out of France” in international competition, calling for strengthening health sovereignty and reducing regulatory constraints deemed penalizing while promoting companies that choose France and Europe for clinical research and production activities.
Companies regularly deplore that French patients access new treatments less quickly than their European neighbors because of prices considered too low and a stricter assessment than elsewhere. “In migraine, no treatment in the anti-CGRP class is currently reimbursed for attack prevention, although this class is accessible in Germany, England, Spain and Italy,” repeats Leem.
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German model
In this context, the G5 health proposes that health products comprising “a major production stage in France or in Europe” can be made available in France as soon as they are authorized in Europe, without waiting for the outcome of negotiations on their price, like the German system. And this, even if it means “changing the philosophy of evaluation, to accept a greater share of uncertainty”.
This proposal is based on a finding drawn up in a study by the Iqvia firm: “of the 404 indications having obtained European marketing authorization between January 2022 and December 2024”, only 51% are accessible to French patients. “We read here and there that one in two drugs would not be available in France,” reacted last week the president of the High Authority for Health (HAS), Lionel Collet, during a back-to-school press conference. In the case of the 404 drugs in the study, only 28 were not reimbursed due to a medical service considered insufficient, or 7% of the total. For 22% of them, the manufacturers have not requested reimbursement and “for the rest, it is simple: it is being evaluated or the price is being negotiated,” he explained.
Concerning anti-migraine drugs (anti-CGRP), “new data has been brought to us. They are being evaluated,” assured Mr. Collet. Until now, the HAS has estimated that they do not provide any improvement over existing treatments, due to lack of sufficient evidence of their superiority. For the G5 Health, “the French assessment methodology is much more severe and out of step with other European countries, both in terms of the quality of evidence and the level of proof of medical value”.
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France already has early access systems for certain innovative medicines, but requests have been declining since 2025. To date, the HAS has received “24 first requests since January 1, when we were at 40 at the same period last year,” said Mr. Collet, who doubts that simple adjustments will be enough to reverse the trend, “if we do not respond” to the concerns of manufacturers “which is that of the price of medicines in France”.
