While legislation proposed by German Health Minister Nina Warken has prompted several large pharmas to reduce investments in the country, she isn't backing down. In an interview with the Funke newspaper group on Friday, Warken said that drugmakers will not be exempt from cost-cutting measures aimed at closing the budget shortfall faced by public health insurance funds.
"Every sector must play its part in this reform," she was quoted as saying. Warken's proposal would require higher mandatory rebates from drugmakers, implement tighter reimbursement rules, and introduce a system that would allow insurers to group similar patent-protected medicines together and encourage physicians to prescribe the least expensive option.
While Warken acknowledged that the legislation would not help drugmakers bring in additional revenue, she added that "Germany remains an attractive location for the pharmaceutical industry."
Last week, Handelsblatt reported that Eli Lilly halved a planned €2.3-billion ($2.7 billion) investment in a manufacturing site for its weight loss drugs in Rhineland-Palatinate, while domestic drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim has scrapped more than €900 million ($1 billion) in planned spending in Germany. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla detailed his concerns over the proposal in a letter to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and pulled out of an international investor conference in the country.
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