Half of medicines sold in France are ‘useless’

Half of all medicines sold in France are either useless or dangerous, according to a book authored by two eminent French medical experts.

According to Philippe Even, former head of the Necker Hospital in Paris, and Bernard Debré, a doctor and member of parliament for the opposition UMP party, one in two medicines sold in pharmacies have absolutely no health benefit, while 5% are actively harmful.

Even told daily newspaper Le Parisien on Thursday that he and Debré had decided to conduct the study in the wake of the “Mediator” scandal. Mediator, a drug for controlling diabetes, is suspected of causing hundreds of deaths.

In their book “4,000 useful, useless and dangerous medicines” they calculate that the French state would save up to 10 billion euros a year by halting social security reimbursements on drugs they say have either no value or are outright dangerous.

They blamed “pressure from the pharmaceutical industry on government and doctors” for filling pharmacies with superfluous and unnecessary products, while the removal of discredited medicines from the market was “extremely rare”.

France is the world’s fifth-largest consumer of medicines, behind the US, China, Germany and Ireland.

The average French citizen will get through 47 medicine packs, prescription or otherwise, every year – at a cost of 532 euros per person, which equates to 12% of GDP. The state shoulders 77% of the cost.

In the UK, by comparison, spending on medicines is 9.6% of GDP.

France24.com