Health insurance companies will soon be given a price reduction on certain medications by regulation. Drug importers say that this will lead to market-related decisions on the part of the manufacturers.
The drug importers warn of a shortage of drugs against cancer, hepatitis C or HIV. The background to this is a rule according to which manufacturers would have to give health insurance companies an additional discount of 20 percent for certain products from May, said the board member of Germany’s drug importers, Jörg Geller, of the Funke media group according to the advance notification.
Many companies would then no longer offer their products in Germany, the association representative was quoted as saying. “It’s not about fever syrups, which are used for more trivial diseases, but above all about drugs for newer cancer therapies.”
Some manufacturers are more likely to bring scarce drugs to markets where they bring higher returns. “The health insurance companies are not willing to pay enough for it as part of their discount agreements,” criticized Geller. The legislator’s desire to save costs is greater than providing people with “highly innovative products”.
Source: Stern
