Agreement Reached In Spain On Industry Payback

On August 1, the Spanish Health Ministry and the Spanish pharmaceutical industry association, Farmaindustria, finally reached agreement on contributions which will have to be paid back by the drug industry based on the growth rate of drug consumption for the next two years.

The final draft of the agreement, dated August 1, shows that the contributions agreed are those put forward in proposals by Farmaindustria (Marketletter August 5). The first period agreed runs from July 1, 1996 to June 30, 1997, with contributions between 0% and 56.73% for growth between 0% and over 6.6%. The agreement says that if growth were to exceed 10% the pharmaceutical industry would contribute:

- 10%-11%, a discount of 0.35% of consumption; and