The French government has proposed a new tax to limit the expenditure of hepatitis C drugs. Estimated sales of hepatitis C products in France are forecast to exceed €1 billion mainly as a result of the high cost of new treatments, such as Gilead’s Sovaldi which is priced at €56,000 per patient. The “progressive contribution scheme” proposal states that if social security spending on hepatitis C drugs exceeds €450 million in 2014, the drug manufacturers will be taxed on the revenue that is in excess of the cap. In 2015, the tax will apply when drug treatment for hepatitis C exceeds €700 million. The government have still to clarify how such a tax will be calculated. It could be on a drug by drug basis which would be aligned with the current price-volume agreements which form part of reimbursement pricing discussions in France or they could adopt a system similar to that in Italy where the level of manufacturer tax would be based on the manufacturer’s market share of hepatitis C sales.
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