Pharmaceutical Technology Europe - August 2012 - (Page 10)

Changing German Market Depresses the Pharma Industry Germany’s pharmaceutical market is currently valued at around €38 billion, making it the largest pharmaceutical market in Europe. Historically, the country has been attractive for launching new medicines because companies were largely free to set their own prices. In 2008, German pharmaceutical prices were described by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development as the highest among its 30 member countries (OECD now has 34 member countries), for both patented and generic drugs. Physician freedom in prescribing has helped drive pharmaceutical sales as well and even when measures were introduced to set volume targets for physicians, they had limited impact. In particular, it was difficult to hold physicians to account because the collection of data to convincingly prove overspending was problematic. Changes in the pricing environment The key sign that times were about to get tougher for pharmaceutical companies in Germany came with the introduction of a new healthcare bill known as AMNOG (ArzneimittelmarktNeuordnungsgesetz) in 2010. AMNOG formally signalled the end to the free pricing era in Germany. In contrast to the previous freepricing environment, companies are now required to demonstrate the benefits of their drugs early in the development process. Following an independent appraisal, these benefits are factored into the permitted price. AMNOG reforms required these data for all new reimbursable drugs and combination therapies. Although pharmaceutical companies have constantly opposed the measures, they are now firmly established. In June 2012, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations (EFPIA) called for a revision of the new German system. EFPIA cited its members’ opinion that early experience with AMNOG had been disappointing and that the underlying law around this legislation was flawed and ambiguous. EFPIA also called AMNOG inflexible and stated that there was unwillingness on the part of the authorities to consider creative solutions for the problems it was creating. EFPIA has called for more consultation and discussion on how decisions are reached. An extended version of this article is available at: PharmTech.com/IndustryInsider0812 Nathan Jessop is an industry expert and regular columnist with Pharmaceutical Technology Europe. 2 Enhancing Bioavailability 10 German Pricing 5 Nanoparticle Engineering 11 Blogs 7 News and Twitter Trends 13 Top Technologies 9 Peer Reviewed Research 14 Staff Stockbyte/Getty Images http://www.PharmTech.com/IndustryInsider0812

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Technology Europe - August 2012

Pharmaceutical Technology Europe - August 2012
Bioavailability Enhancement: When to use Hot-Melt Extrusion Versus Spray Drying
Tackling Solubility Issues with Nanoparticle Engineering
News Bites and Trends on Twitter
Peer-Reviewed Research: Carbon Measurement Methods for Cleaning Validation
Changing German Market Depresses the Pharma Industry
Blogs: Big data; the Olympics and GSK; FDA lawsuit; and unlicensed medicines
Top Technologies: Biopharmaceutical Equipment

Pharmaceutical Technology Europe - August 2012