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Germany Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q1 2010
Business Monitor International, Nov 2009, Pages: 80
Business Monitor International's Germany Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, pharmaceutical associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Germany's pharmaceuticals and healthcare industry.
In BMI’s Business Environment Ratings (BER) for Q110, Germany rose to pole position, among the nine Western European markets surveyed, having previously been ranked second behind Switzerland. The ratings criteria serve to reinforce the publisher's estimation of the country’s potential owing to its strong emphasis on the regulatory environment, despite a major focus on cost-containment and industry-wide dissatisfaction over pricing and reimbursement practices. BMI calculated that Germany’s pharmaceutical expenditure was EUR37.4bn (US$55.0bn) in 2008, with the sales of medicines at consumer prices forecast to rise by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 2.18% in local currency terms to 2014. In 2009 the market value is expected to increase marginally, to reach EUR38.2bn (US$53.7bn), driven by demand rather than pricing considerations. In fact, continued downward pressure on prices can be expected according to the country’s industry associations.
Nevertheless, according to a study published in September 2009 by the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, patients in Germany pay significantly more for their medicines than those in other European countries. The study attributes the high cost of medicines to the lack of effective price controls, claiming that the mechanisms for authorities and statutory insurance companies to reduce drug prices do not apply when a novel drug is brought into the market. Previous studies have highlighted the imposition of value-added tax (VAT) on pharmaceuticals – in comparison to the VATexempt status of medicines in most other European countries – and prescription volumes as key drivers of increased pharmaceutical spending in the country.
In the light of a difficult economic situation – after a disastrous 2009, the publisher forecasts economic expansion of just 0.9% in 2010 – German authorities have continued to implement a variety of cost-containment measures. In September 2009, Germany’s healthcare cost-effectiveness regulator IQWIG recommended that health insurers in the country stop reimbursing memantine, an Alzheimer’s disease drug, claiming that the drug fails to provide any benefit to patients or caregivers. Since the start of the year, after recommendations by the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), second opinions by physicians for reimbursable prescriptions of high-cost treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have been mandatory. BMI believes that, despite only initially being applicable to a small patient group, introducing second opinions to prescriptions will introduce an unnecessary level of bureaucracy to the system, therefore slowing patients’ access to essential medicines.
Despite the challenges, the German pharmaceutical marketplace remains a dynamic one. For example, in August 2009, local biopharmaceutical company Apogenix received EUR2.6mn (US$3.6mn) from the federal government to help the company to develop chronic inflammatory disease and oncology candidates. The grant is part of a EUR40mn (US$56.3mn) scheme for businesses in Germany’s Rhine- Neckar biotech cluster. In the same month, Belgian pharmaceutical group UCB and Swiss drugmaker Novartis signed a licensing deal for cardiovascular and diabetes products in order to expand in Germany.
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