OBJECTIVES: The patent expiries of leading biologic products and development of biosimilars create opportunities for cost saving. The french public health policies has established a complementary means encouraging heathcare facilities (HF) to save money : the « écart médicament indemnisable » (EMI). We explored the evaluation of EMI on the erythropoietic factors class. METHODS: We’ve carried out a comparative study in french HF, representing about 65% of national hospital beds, on the price of erythropoietic factors. The data have been collected on procurement procedures operative as at january 1, 2012.  RESULTS: 25 care facilities or group of care facilities agreed to participate in the study. The overall sales turnover reached 15 millions euros (M€). All HF granted a discount from 5% to 69% on the prices fixed by negociation between the Comité Economique des Produits de Santé and the manufacturers. The average discount ranges from 11% to 73%. The average EMI varies between 1.42 and 2.69 € excluding value added tax (EVAT) per 1000 international units and between 0.09 and 0.22 € EVAT per microgram according to the medicinal product. The average amount refunded to HF can be estimated at january 1, 2012 at 3.37 M€, or 22.6% of the total budget. We assessed annual prices trends based on starting dates of contract, and we could figure out EMI trends. According to the product, the EMI quickly decline, remain broadly stable or increase. CONCLUSIONS: Many of top-selling biologics are due to lose patent protection over the next years. The emergence of competition in pharmaceutical market contributes to better control expenditure in our health system. The great potential for cost savings concerning erythropoietic factors in our study could be investigated in other class of medicinal products