As in supermarkets, the end of annual negotiations between brands and suppliers at the beginning of March 2023 led to a surge in prices in pharmacies. According to Le Monde, several non-prescription products are concerned, such as diapers, creams, toothpastes or cosmetics.
According to David Abenhaim, president of the Pharmabest Group, prices have been "multiplied by three or four". The negotiations would have been particularly tough this year. Pascal Fontaine, commercial director of the La Fayette pharmacy network, evokes "vertiginous" demands and ensures that he had to fight to "contain price increases between 3 and 4%".
Unexplained price increases
At Pharmabest, some references that are well known to parents are no longer offered, such as Pampers diapers or Gallia milk. The group of pharmacies decided not to source from these brands, believing that the manufacturers had sought to "profit on the best-selling products" unlike small laboratories, more "reasonable", according to David Abenhaim.
Not all price increases are justified. If the price of saline has increased by 46% in one year because of the explosion of transport costs, other references have no excuse. Synthol and some sunscreens have seen their price increase without explanation, notes Le Monde.
These increases are also transforming the market, with shortages accumulating in pharmacies and laboratories that prefer to sell abroad rather than in France. One solution to solving price and availability problems would be to offer cheaper products, sold in batches, on sale or manufactured directly by pharmacies. It remains to implement this solution.
- Pharmacy
- Purchasing power
- Tariff
- Negotiation
- Health
- Economy
- Inflation