France calls into question pharmacies' monopoly

InIn a recent report on regulated professions in France, the General Inspection of Finance (GIF) recommends that pharmacies should no longer have a monopoly on the sale of certain drugs, reports RFI.

GIF wants to open up the sale of drugs that do not require prescriptions (like Tylenol and Spasfon) and drugs that are non-refundable (like Nurofen, Humex and Fervex) to supermarkets.

This could lead to a price decline in favour of consumers.

These drugs represent an average 9% of pharmacies’ turnover.

GIF underlines that during the past fifteen years "the price of non-refundable medicines has increased twice as much as the cost of living.”

Read more of this report from RFI.