| Research and Markets has announced the addition of Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement in Germany to their offering.
At first glance, the German pharmaceutical market looks extremely attractive to drug manufacturers. However, manufacturers seeking to do business in Germany must contend with many cost-containment measures. Further, a radical new reform of the German healthcare system threatens to introduce new measures that would greatly increase the burden on pharmaceutical companies.
In 2006, the German government introduced a number of cost-containment measures to control pharmaceutical spending, and further controversial changes are on the way. What cost containment measures were imposed in 2006, and what further reforms are poised to threaten the pharmaceutical market?
Beginning January 2007, the highly controversial Bonus-Malus rule will allow health insurance funds to set daily cost-of-therapy limits for drugs that have substantial sales and ranges of clinically comparable therapies. Which drug classes will this initiative target? How will physicians ' prescribing behaviors change?
Stricter reference pricing methods have forced branded and generic drugs into the same reference price groups. Pfizer, in defiance of these new measures, refused to reduce the price of its drug Sortis. How do the rigid reference prices impact competition within drug classes?
What was the outcome of Pfizer ' s controversial move?
Scope:
Organization and funding of the German health care system: spending, pharmaceutical prices relative to other major markets, statutory health insurance, and regular health care reforms.
Cost-containment measures: a description of current and proposed cost-containment measures in the German health care system.
Reimbursement of hospital medicines: pricing, prospective payments, pharmacy decision making, monitoring pharmaceutical use and spending.
Outlook for the German pharmaceutical market: the pharmaceutical industry ' s challenge of keeping pace with the government ' s health care reforms. |
