Novo agrees price cut deal with Greece
pharmafile | June 16, 2010 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Greece, Novo Nordisk, insulin, pricing
Novo Nordisk has agreed to resume supply of its insulins to the Greek market after pulling them last month as a protest over enforced price cuts.
The two sides have struck a deal for price cut less severe than the original 25% reduction originally demanded by the Greek government.
Novo Nordisk spokesman Mike Rulis told Reuters: “It’s still a price reduction compared with the prices before 3 May. It’s no longer 25% but rather along the lines of 10%.”
The new deal means Novo will sell its newer insulin products at prices around 8% below the average of the three lowest national prices in Europe.
Rulis was keen to characterise the reduced prices as “temporary”, adding that Novo hopes to agree higher insulin prices with the Greek government in time for the new price plan that’s due to be introduced in the country by 1 September.
He added that: “This gives us confidence that we will reach a long-term solution through the dialogue we will be having with the government about the decree.”
Novo make sales of around $58 million in Greece, contributing to an annual global turnover of $8.3 billion, and is keen to remain in the Greek market with a strong deal for its products prices as Greece is seen by some as a reference point in the EU for pricing.
Rulis said that the new higher prices set on 14 July will also affect these reference prices, but the financial effect on his company will be “hard to estimate”.
Leo Pharma, another Danish pharma who pulled some medicines out of Greece at the same time as Novo, has not as yet reached a deal with the Greek government on re-introducing its anti-coagulant and psoriasis treatments. The company remains in discussion with the government.
The driver behind Greece’s enforced price reductions is its budget deficit. Across the Eurozone deficits have been expanding, and in a worrying trend for pharma, Spain, Germany and Italy have all recently proposed or enacted drug price reductions.
Ben Adams
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