Drug Policies in Germany
Paris, Valérie
Drug Policies in Germany - 2007.
69
This article describes the drug policies held by Germany since the beginning of the 1990s and attempts to evaluate the impact thereof. Since 1989, the conditions for drug reimbursement by the healthcare insurance funds have evolved (a re-evaluation of the reimbursement perimeter, co-payment modifications that remain the patient’s responsibility, the introduction and extension of reference prices). Until now, Germany never directly regulated drug prices, but the 2007 reform should modify the conditions under which the prices are set. Moreover, numerous measures were adopted to improve the efficiency of prescriptions (target budgets for doctors, mandatory substitution for pharmacists, etc.). The increase in drug expenditure in Germany was inferior to that observed in the OECD zone between 1997 and 2005. This evolution is, in fact, the result of a reduction in the volume of prescriptions, a stabilisation of the price index when the entire market is considered, and the transfer of prescriptions to the most expensive products. Nevertheless, the efforts to improve prescription efficiency do not appear to be in vain being that there is an increase in the number of generic drugs penetrating the market and a decrease in prescriptions for products whose efficiency has been contested. The ensemble of these measures, though often contested by the pharmaceutical industry, do not appear to have affected Germany’s attractiveness for the pharmaceutical industry.
Drug Policies in Germany - 2007.
69
This article describes the drug policies held by Germany since the beginning of the 1990s and attempts to evaluate the impact thereof. Since 1989, the conditions for drug reimbursement by the healthcare insurance funds have evolved (a re-evaluation of the reimbursement perimeter, co-payment modifications that remain the patient’s responsibility, the introduction and extension of reference prices). Until now, Germany never directly regulated drug prices, but the 2007 reform should modify the conditions under which the prices are set. Moreover, numerous measures were adopted to improve the efficiency of prescriptions (target budgets for doctors, mandatory substitution for pharmacists, etc.). The increase in drug expenditure in Germany was inferior to that observed in the OECD zone between 1997 and 2005. This evolution is, in fact, the result of a reduction in the volume of prescriptions, a stabilisation of the price index when the entire market is considered, and the transfer of prescriptions to the most expensive products. Nevertheless, the efforts to improve prescription efficiency do not appear to be in vain being that there is an increase in the number of generic drugs penetrating the market and a decrease in prescriptions for products whose efficiency has been contested. The ensemble of these measures, though often contested by the pharmaceutical industry, do not appear to have affected Germany’s attractiveness for the pharmaceutical industry.
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