In a bid to make Germany competitive again for pharmaceuticals and research, the Federal Health Minister, Karl Lauterbach, has announced on 1st December that confidential rebates as part of the pharmaceutical strategy. The wording from the statement is as follows “ As part of the reimbursement amount negotiations, the replacement of the publicly listed reimbursement amount with a confidential reimbursement amount is made possible.”. This does not give much information and so we shall have to wait to find out additional rules surrounding this.
In addition, the statement also confirmed that the mandatory discount would be reduced from 12% back to 7% and discount contract regulations for antibiotics set out in the Medicines Supply Bottleneck Combating and Care Improvement Act will be extended to selected other medicines, in particular oncological medicines. Some improvements to digitalisation were also mentioned, where a research data centre is being set up which may be accessible for pharmaceutical research.
Previous insight written 26th October 2023:
Will Germany begin to introduce confidential rebates?
A strategy paper has been leaked from the federal government in Germany which may please manufacturers as it suggests that confidential discounts may be introduced in Germany. This comes following many complaints over recent changes in Germany as a result of the GKV financial stabilisation act. Limited details of the paper are in the public domain, but here is what is known so far:
In the strategy paper, there are reports that the government is considering introducing confidential discounts which would only be known by a small number of parties. No details have been disclosed about the types of medicines which may be included in these discounts. The strategy paper is reported to have stated that the publicly listed price may be able to be set by the manufacturer.
In addition, the strategy also states that:
- Germany rejects some of the plans within the EU Pharmaceutical Package namely the weakening of patent rights
- That they wish to incentivise drug manufacturing within the EU and to have greater diversity of supply chains
- Plans to strengthen Germany as a research location with the goal of accelerating clinical trials with the support of BfArM and PEI, new bodies set up which will be required in clinical trial approval
Sources:
- Lauterbach: Forschung und Medizinproduktion in Deutschland stärken. Bundesministerium fur Gesundheit. https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/ministerium/meldungen/lauterbach-forschung-und-medizinproduktion-in-deutschland-staerken-01-12-23.html. Accessed 4th December 2023.
- Vertrauliche Rabatte und geringere Herstellerabschläge. Tagesspiegel. https://background.tagesspiegel.de/gesundheit/vertrauliche-rabatte-und-geringere-herstellerabschlaege. Accessed 26th October 2023.