Why are the French afraid of having their Doliprane stolen?
Doliprane sold to the Americans? The prospect panics the French: the medicine in the yellow box is the most consumed in France. What does this painkiller, anti-fever represent in our daily life? Decryption with Mathieu Molimard, pharmacologist at Bordeaux University Hospital
The Dafalgan 2nd in sales
Second place goes to Upsa’s Dafalgan with less than 75 million boxes. Doliprane like Dafalgan are products based on paracetamol, one of the most common painkillers. Paracetamol is “by far the first molecule reimbursed in volume”, underlines Health Insurance. And “Doliprane alone accounts for almost 75% of the number of boxes delivered for this molecule”.
With around 36 million patients, more than half of the French population has been prescribed Doliprane, a sign of the still emblematic nature of this drug at the heart of a recent controversy. Sanofi plans to sell the majority of Opella, its subsidiary producing Doliprane, to an American fund, CD&R.
The announcement provoked strong opposition from unions, as well as politicians from all sides, amid concerns about employment and the supply of medicines, even though paracetamol itself is not manufactured by Sanofi’s French factories. The State imposed numerous guarantees on Sanofi and CD & R regarding the use and production of Doliprane on French soil, even if they are considered insufficient by opponents of the sale.
Despite Sanofi’s overwhelming place in prescriptions, it is not the treatment for which reimbursement represents the highest amounts for Health Insurance. It only ranks 17th, given its low cost.
Eliquis, the anti-coagulant, at the forefront of reimbursements
First place goes to an anticoagulant, Eliquis – marketed jointly by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer -, with more than 750 million euros reimbursed. However, this drug has hardly demonstrated any major benefit compared to other treatments. This is the case for many other covered treatments: almost a third of the amounts reimbursed in 2022, according to Health Insurance.
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