When a drug is put on the market, it may not perform exactly the same way as
it did at prior to obtaining market authorisation (namely, at the clinical research
stage or during the pricing negotiation). This risk is now covered by a “conditio-
nal contract”. A quick agreement on the price is granted provided pharmaceuti-
cal companies undertake to partially or fully refund the sum initially negotiated
should the treatment be less effective than originally stated. Using a framework
setting out application guidelines, we shall analyse these market access contracts
for reimbursable products under the Social Security system. For the most part,
these conditional contracts are drawn up on the strength of descriptive or nor-
mative studies without a control group. This means that the therapeutic impact
of the drug cannot be measured. In such a context, price xing for drugs may be
jeopardised by the scanty quality of evidence. In order to address this issue, we
suggest setting up comparative observational studies and comparing groups with
the appropriate micro-econometric studies.
Article