C.I.P.

What C.I.P. does

C.I.P. (Club Inter Pharmaceutique), operating as CIPmédicament, is a French non-profit association founded in 1964 and headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt that functions as the neutral reference data and codification infrastructure for the French pharmaceutical distribution chain. It develops and maintains two core proprietary databases — Base CIP, which catalogs all 185,000+ pharmaceutical presentations marketed in France and is updated daily with validated product, pricing, reimbursement, and logistics information, and Base UCD, which catalogs Unit Common Dispensing (UCD) codes used by hospital pharmacies. On top of these databases C.I.P. operates interoperable data-exchange products including the eCatalogue CIP UCD (for public hospital procurement responses), the Fiche Produit Dématérialisée (structured dematerialized product sheets), the Table de Correspondance (CIP-to-7/13 code mapping), and serialization services supporting EU FMD traceability. Its Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté series establishes reference standards for transport, dispute resolution, traceability, and interoperability across the chain.

C.I.P.'s business model is association-based: membership is open to pharmaceutical establishments upon written attestation, and the organization sustains itself through annual membership fees from more than 200 validated members spanning laboratories, depositories, wholesalers-distributors, community pharmacies, and health establishments. The coding systems (CIP and UCD 3400) have been officially validated and perpetuated by the Direction Générale de la Santé, granting C.I.P. international recognition as an Issuing Agency for medication coding. The association co-develops standards with ACLsanté, partners with hospital IT integrators such as CACIC (automatic eCatalogue integration since 2020), and participates in industry forums including Hopipharm, Rencontres Convergences Santé Hôpital, and PHARMAPPROM.

Distribution is direct and digital: members access the Base CIP referential online, request UCD code access by email, and receive configurable event and product alerts. The association's stated mission is to provide simple, reliable, neutral codification usable by every actor in the pharmaceutical chain and to serve as the indispensable technical interface with French supervisory authorities on traceability matters.

Name

C.I.P.

Legal name

Club Inter Pharmaceutique

Website

https://cipmedicament.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1970

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

C.I.P. (Club Inter Pharmaceutique) is a French non-profit association that maintains the Base CIP and Base UCD reference databases and codification standards used by laboratories, wholesalers-distributors, pharmacies, and health establishments across the French pharmaceutical distribution chain.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Pharmaceutical Data and Coding Services

NAICS

Directory and Mailing List Publishers (513140)

SIC

Wholesale-Drugs, Proprietaries & Druggists' Sundries (5122)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLACAKAO

Pharmacy Interoperability, Standards & Integration (FHIR/NCPDP)

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Digital Health & Health IT/ePrescribing, Medication Management & Pharmacy IT

SECONDARYHLAIAJAD

Hospital & Health-System Pharmaceutical Distributors

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Pharmaceuticals/Pharmaceutical Distribution & Wholesaling

SECONDARYHLACABAI

Clinical Document & Data Exchange (C-CDA, CCD, Direct Messaging)

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Digital Health & Health IT/Health Information Exchange (HIE) & Interoperability

Keywords

• Pharmaceutical data standards
• Medication coding services
• Pharmaceutical product database
• Drug serialization services
• Pharmaceutical reference catalogs

Headquarters

HQ city

Boulogne-billancourt

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: C.I.P. operates as an association with over 200 members who trust the organization daily by validating their product sheets. Members include laboratories, depositaries, wholesalers-distributors, pharmacies, and health establishments.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

C.I.P. is a non-profit inter-professional association that produces, maintains, and distributes standardized pharmaceutical databases and coding systems for the French pharmaceutical distribution chain. It provides reference products such as Base CIP, Base UCD, eCatalogue UCD, dematerialized product sheets, correspondence tables, directories, and serialization services used by laboratories, wholesalers, pharmacies, and health establishments.

Product overview

C.I.P. (Club Inter Pharmaceutique) operates as a database and reference information service for the French pharmaceutical distribution chain. The core offering is the Base Produits CIP database containing 185,000+ pharmaceutical presentations, supplemented by the Code UCD system for hospital medication identification. Key products include the eCatalogue UCD for public procurement responses, Fiche Produit Dématérialisée for structured product data exchange, Table de Correspondance for code mapping, Annuaires for partner directories, and Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté for interoperability recommendations. The platform serves laboratories, wholesalers-distributors, depositories, community pharmacies, and healthcare establishments through daily-updated databases and dematerialized exchange standards.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté: Reference documents containing standards for traceability and exchanges developed with health professionals
• Base CIP
• Base Produits UCD

Products and services

• Base CIP Foundational reference database maintained by C.I.P. that provides standardized product and coding information for medicines distributed in France. It is used by laboratories, wholesalers, depositaries, pharmacies, and health establishments as the authoritative reference for pharmaceutical product identification.
• Base UCD Reference database of pharmaceutical units (Unités Communes de Dispensation) used to identify, code, and dispense medicines at unit level across the French pharmaceutical distribution chain.
• eCatalogue UCD Online electronic catalog providing access to the UCD reference data and related product information, used by wholesalers, depositaries, pharmacies, and health establishments for catalog management and product lookup.
• Fiche Produit Dématérialisée Dematerialized (digital) product sheet providing standardized product information for medicines in electronic form, replacing or supplementing paper-based product sheets across the distribution chain.
• Table de Correspondance Correspondence table linking different pharmaceutical coding and identification systems used across the French pharmaceutical chain, enabling interoperability between actors.
• Annuaires Directories published by C.I.P. listing pharmaceutical actors and reference data for the French pharmaceutical distribution chain.
• Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté Periodic publication produced jointly by C.I.P. and ACLsanté providing pharmaceutical sector information and reference content for member organizations.
• Sérialisation du Médicament Medicine serialization service supporting compliance with French and European serialization requirements for pharmaceutical products moving through the distribution chain.
• Code UCD Standardized unit code (Unité Commune de Dispensation) issued and managed by C.I.P. as the de facto reference identifier for pharmaceutical units in the French distribution chain.

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ACLsantécoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCIP and ACLsanté jointly produce the Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté, which are reference documents establishing traceability and exchange standards developed with healthcare professionals. They co-participate in industry events such as Hopipharm congress.
• Direction Générale de la SantécoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Direction Générale de la Santé has validated and perpetuated the CIP and UCD 3400 coding systems after three years of collaboration, recognizing C.I.P. as an essential actor in medication coding in France with international recognition as an Issuing Agency.
• SNPHPU (Syndicat National des Pharmaciens des Hôpitaux et des Structures de Santé)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerC.I.P. participates in the annual Rencontres Convergences Santé Hôpital organized by SNPHPU. Co-presents services for hospital pharmacists including eCatalogue integration for hospital procurement.
• PHARMAPPROMcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerC.I.P. participated in the 4th PHARMAPPROM meeting focused on interoperability and standardization of disputes, contributing to the table on interoperability in practice.
• CACICcoreTechnology or IntegrationSince 2020, CACIC has integrated automatic eCatalogue CIP UCD data as a major step in their partnership with C.I.P., enabling automated hospital procurement system updates.
• Alliance Healthcare FranceminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLaurent Bertrand, Pharmacien Responsable, Directeur Qualité et Affaires réglementaires at Alliance Healthcare France, is featured in CIP interview series discussing the importance of CIP services for wholesaler-distributors.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• GS1: Global supply chain standards organization that operates the GS1 identification system used across healthcare. C.I.P. is recognized as an Issuing Agency similar to GS1, and both organizations develop coding and identification standards for pharmaceutical distribution and traceability.
• ACLsanté: Strategic partner organization that co-produces the Cahiers CIP-ACLsanté reference documents with C.I.P. ACLsanté provides complementary services and traceability standards for the French healthcare distribution chain, directly intersecting with C.I.P.'s core offering.
• European Medicines Verification Organisation (EMVO): Pan-European organization that implements the Falsified Medicines Directive verification system across EU member states. C.I.P. operates the Sérialisation du Médicament service that intersects with EMVO's medication verification and serialization infrastructure.

Broad incumbents

• IHE Europe: European affiliate of Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise, focused on interoperability standards for healthcare data exchange. IHE Europe's work on healthcare interoperability profiles overlaps with C.I.P.'s standardized data exchange and integration initiatives.
• SNOMED International: International organization that maintains SNOMED CT, the global clinical terminology standard. SNOMED International and C.I.P. both develop structured reference data standards used across healthcare, though SNOMED CT focuses on clinical terms while CIP focuses on pharmaceutical product coding.
• Cegedim: French healthcare technology and data company providing software, databases, and services to pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, and insurers. Cegedim serves overlapping customer segments in the French pharmaceutical distribution chain.
• Datapharm: UK-based provider of medicines information, including the electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC). Datapharm serves a similar function in the UK pharmaceutical distribution chain that C.I.P. serves in France.

Regional players

• PHAST: French healthcare IT cooperative serving hospital pharmacies and healthcare establishments with software solutions. PHAST is a regional player that integrates pharmaceutical databases (including C.I.P.'s data) into hospital information systems.

Others

• GFIS (Groupement des Fabricants et Fournisseurs de l'Industrie de la Santé): French industry group representing medical device and healthcare product manufacturers. GFIS is a thematically related industry association that engages with pharmaceutical distribution standards alongside C.I.P.'s ecosystem.

Emerging players

• Equator (French pharmaceutical data): French-based provider of pharmaceutical product and regulatory data services. Equator offers partial overlap with C.I.P.'s Base CIP database, particularly for laboratory regulatory data and pharmaceutical product information.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cip-medicament

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about C.I.P.