Lilly chief: German reforms jeopardise pharma innovation
pharmafile | July 8, 2011 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Germany, John Lechleiter, lilly, medicines pricing
German healthcare spending cuts have gone too far and risk jeopardising pharmaceutical innovation in the country, according to Lilly’s chief executive.
John Lechleiter said it was time for a fresh start between the government and industry, and he called for closer collaboration and better communication between the two sides.
Germany is one of Lilly’s most important markets and Lechleiter’s firm, in common with many others across the industry, has endured a tumultuous 12 months.
Germany’s part in the austerity measures sweeping Europe has seen controls put in place that aim to save its healthcare system around €2 billion per year starting from 2011.
They include a new law to control prescription drug costs that offers a one-year window for pharma to negotiate prices with health insurers after introducing new drugs, with the Health Ministry setting a maximum price if no agreement is reached.
“In no other place in the world has the environment for innovative pharmaceuticals changed more in the last 12 months than it has in Germany,” Lechleiter told the Federation of German Industries Conference in Germany.
The recent health care reforms were “jeopardising the country’s legacy of pharmaceutical innovation” he said, but added: “At the same time, I see Germany as a place where the pharmaceutical industry can achieve a breakthrough – a fresh start if you will – to develop more constructive and collaborative relationships.”
Germany is Lilly’s third-largest market in the world. The company employs nearly 1,000 employees and is currently running more than 120 clinical trials, testing 26 potential new medicines, there.
But Lechleiter said: “For companies like Lilly to make the enormous investments necessary to develop new medicines, we need predictability and certainty in the regulatory process that will determine whether or not those medicines will ever reach patients.
Lechleiter, who last year warned about the effects of UK health reform on pharma, said government and industry were on the same side in the fight against disease and called for them to work together more.
He added: “I know I speak for colleagues in the biopharmaceutical industry when I say that we seek a regular, open, and structured dialogue in Germany with the government and the health care system.”
Dominic Tyer
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