The Pharmaceutical Companies Association (Les Entreprises du Médicament, LEEM) has published its 2026 360° barometer on France’s attractiveness for medicines, presenting access to innovation as part of a wider assessment of the country’s position in pharmaceutical research, production and investment.
The report was prepared by PwC Strategy& for LEEM. It brings together indicators on medicines access, clinical-trial activity, industrial production, employment and export performance. The access section draws on the same availability and delay data used in the 2025 EFPIA Patients WAIT Indicator, but LEEM places those figures within a France-specific argument on the conditions shaping launch priority and investment.
The France–Germany comparison carries much of the access message. LEEM reports that 60% of new medicines are accessible and reimbursable in France, compared with 93% in Germany. Median access time is given as 520 days in France and 56 days in Germany. These are the same headline figures as those reported for France and Germany in the latest WAIT analysis, while LEEM uses them to support a broader diagnosis of the French market environment.
LEEM links the French position to the length of pricing and reimbursement negotiations and to the way value is recognised for innovative medicines. Its proposed responses include faster negotiations, removal of blockages affecting orphan and innovative medicines, consolidation of early access, and more consistent evaluation.
Early access is treated as one of France’s compensating mechanisms, but with uneven use. LEEM reports that fewer than one in two medicines had an early-access request in 2025. The figure limits any simple reading of early access as a general offset to slower permanent reimbursement, particularly for products that do not enter that route before full pricing and reimbursement negotiation.
The access indicators sit alongside wider competitiveness measures. LEEM points to international competition in clinical research, gives Europe’s share of new clinical trials as 20%, and frames France’s position as dependent on both faster access conditions and a more predictable environment for research and production.
The report adds weight to the current framework-agreement negotiation between the Economic Committee for Health Products (Comité économique des produits de santé, CEPS) and medicines companies. By placing WAIT access metrics within a broader attractiveness barometer, LEEM ties reimbursement delay to the same policy discussion as clinical-trial location, production investment and France’s ability to remain a priority launch market.
Source: Pharmaceutical Companies Association, LEEM
Link: Baromètre 360° de l’attractivité de la France pour l’industrie pharmaceutique - Edition 2026 : Accès aux traitements, progrès thérapeutique, attractivité de la France : reprendre l’avantage ou décrocher ? (360° barometer of France’s attractiveness for the pharmaceutical industry - 2026 edition: Access to treatments, therapeutic progress, France’s attractiveness: regain the advantage or fall behind?)
Date: 25 June 2026
