The relocation of large parts of pharmaceutical production to China or India is worrying Germany. Now the federal government wants to strengthen the pharmaceutical industry in Germany. The Minister of Health speaks of a race to catch up.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to bring significantly more research to Germany to strengthen the fight against cancer, infections and other serious diseases. A new medical research law should be introduced before Christmas, said Lauterbach in Berlin.
Germany has fallen significantly behind in pharmaceutical innovations in recent years. There are ten times as many patents in Great Britain as in Germany and 20 times as many actual production locations. The goal is now “re-industrialization in Germany” in this area. “This is where we fell behind.” Increased research should also bring more subsequent production of new drugs to Germany. “Where research takes place, production also takes place,” said Lauterbach.
Fast approvals
The legal plans now provide for a whole range of innovations. Lauterbach said: “We will catch up with the clinical studies here.” Specifically, there are plans to reduce bureaucracy: Among other things, certain clinical studies will only have to be applied for in one place at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). The approval process should be completed within 25 days. In particular, mandatory tests on questions of ethics, radiation protection and data protection should be simplified.
The aim is also to give researchers more access to health data. According to Lauterbach, three laws that are currently being developed should work together – in addition to the medical research law that has now been announced, a law on the broader use of health data and the planned digital law for the introduction of an electronic patient file for all insured persons. These laws would “significantly strengthen” Germany as a pharmaceutical research location, said the minister.
More data and more funding
Data that accrued during the billing of treatments will be brought together nationwide in the future, as Lauterbach said. In this way, research should be able to make better use of them. There are collaborations with the USA and Great Britain for this purpose.
The Ministry of Health writes in a strategy paper that “targeted funding instruments” should also be used to set up new production facilities in Germany. These would be examined together with the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Start-up companies should be encouraged to set up business with tax incentives. Lauterbach was optimistic here despite the current budget crisis. The Ministry of Economic Affairs has “clever ideas here”.
The plans to strengthen the pharmaceutical location are in line with the results of a top-level meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) the day before. Top representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), among others, took part in the so-called pharmaceutical summit. Results had not been reported.
Source: Stern
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