Germany said to be backtracking on pharma rebate changes
Germany's government is reportedly scrapping plans to introduce a system of variable rebates on medicines, part of a suite of reforms aimed at saving billions of euros in healthcare spending from next year.
A Reuters report suggests that pushback from the pharma companies – some of which have been threatening to reduce capital investments in Germany if the reforms pass unchanged – has resulted in the government dropping plans to require drugmakers to offer price discounts that would vary depending on spending growth for patent-protected drugs.
Instead, the current system of fixed-rate markdowns – currently at 7% – would be retained, according to the news agency, which cited an unnamed government source.
The pharma industry has been vocal in its opposition to dynamic compulsory rebates, arguing that it would introduce an unpredictable and opaque system that would make it harder to operate in the German market.
Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim, and AstraZeneca are among pharma groups that have threatened to reduce capital investments in Germany, and potentially decline to launch new medicines there, if the draft 'GKV-BStabG' law is enacted.
Along with dynamic rebates, the draft includes a raft of other measures, including an extension to a reimbursement price freeze to end-2030, binding price/volume discounts under the AMNOG health technology assessment (HTA) system, and additional rebates for innovative vaccines.
Germany's federal health ministry told Reuters that nothing has been decided yet, and it was not able to comment on any "parliamentary deliberations."
The GKV-BStabG is intended to save the German healthcare system almost €20 billion in 2027 and more than €42 billion by 2030, according to an analysis by life sciences consultancy Covington, which notes that anticipated cuts in pharma spending are expected to contribute around €1.9 billion in savings next year.
Pharma industry organisation VFA has claimed that the GKV-BStabG will undermine the federal government's goals for Germany as a pharma hub and "destroys […] reliability for research and investment."
It has suggested that the dynamic rebate system would make companies liable for developments they can neither control nor reliably calculate, including "economic cycles, wage trends, demographics, and prescribing patterns in the overall market."
German Health Minister Nina Warken told the Funke newspaper group last week that the government was not prepared to back down, saying that "every sector must play its part" in the reform package.
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