The Impact on Big Pharma’s Production Model of Medicine Policies in a Context of Austerity in France and the UK

Abstract

The austerity policies implemented by France and the United Kingdom since the 2008 crisis have led to a drastic rationalisation of health spending in both countries. This is especially true for spending on medicines, which is an important part of the health budget. Even though health policies in the two countries seem to be very different, given the specificities of each health system, this rationalisation has expressed itself through greater privatisation, a hardening of mechanisms for controlling the prices of the most expensive drugs and incentives to use the cheapest drugs when possible, such as generic drugs. The pharmaceutical industry has not suffered much from these measures. It first reacted, at least provisionally, by accepting to develop generic drugs. As of 2012, Big Pharma companies have started to implement a new model for producing innovation and highly expensive drugs, grounded in biotechnology and customised medicine. This strategy is based on highly outsourced industrial organisations which have allowed the industry to benefit from healthcare systems, to reduce risks and to make large profits