R&D chief loses his cool over Swedish attitude
pharmafile | July 26, 2004 | News story | |
AstraZeneca says it remains committed to its research operations in Sweden – with its headquarters south-west of Stockholm – after its head of R&D threatened to pull its headquarters out of Stockholm.
Martin Nicklasson had accused the authorities of being more interested in saving money than in new treatments and innovation.
"Why should we spend 11 billion kronor [E1.2 billion] on research in Sweden when this country doesn't appreciate the work of our 5,000 researchers?" he told Swedish national radio, after doctors were recommended not to prescribe a number of AstraZeneca's newer products.
Sweden's Drug & Therapeutics Committees (DTC) has recommended cheaper off-patent drugs such as omeprazole instead of AstraZeneca's Nexium and simvastatin instead of the company's new statin Crestor.
DTC chairman Ola Ohlsson said that AstraZeneca should adapt to consumer demand and that healthcare doesn't need more me-too drugs.
Sweden's attitude to Crestor is not unique in Europe and a number of other countries have also given the drug a less than warm reception. Germany, Spain and Norway last year withdrew from the mutual recognition process for the drug because of arguments over pricing and labelling, and it has still not been launched in these countries.
AstraZeneca chief executive Tom McKillop, speaking last year, singled out Germany in particular when he accused Europe of "killing its pharmaceutical industry".
"The US market is developing better and Europe is drifting, that is true especially for Germany, and I find that sad," he told German newspaper Die Welt in August 2003.
The competitiveness of European pharma continues to be a matter of high concern for the industry. On his election as president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) in May this year, Dr Franz Humer, chief executive of Roche, said he would make it one of his priorities to improve the healthcare market environment in Europe.
Dr Humer, who replaced McKillop as EFPIA president, said: "The central question is whether we can continue to espouse public policies in Europe that restrict access to better healthcare, including innovative medicines? My reply is clearly: no!"
But Europeans are not alone in not wholeheartedly embracing Crestor. WellPoint Health Networks, the second largest private health insurer in the US, will not reimburse the drug because of concerns over its safety and benefits.
Dr Robert Seidman, chief pharmacy officer for California-based WellPoint, said: "We've already been Baycolled," referring to Bayer's statin Baycol, which was withdrawn from the market in 2001 and eventually linked to more than 100 deaths.
But WellPoint will continue to reimburse patients for Pfizer's Lipitor and several other statins.
