GERMAN DRUG FIRMS BRAVING REFORMS

The German pharmaceutical industry has largely withstood the effects of the government's controversial health reform legislation, which was introduced in order to reduce health expenditures, according to the drug industry association, the BPI.

Industry concerns that the legislation's fixed-level price support regime would create alignments between the prices of original drug products and those of generic copies have been realized, but the reason why the majority of German drug manufacturers are currently voicing few major complaints is that the prices regime has been applied to existing drug products only, and not to the new research-based products emerging from manufacturers' R&D pipelines.

Since the health reform legislation was introduced around two years ago, drug manufacturers have been turning increasingly to export business. However, in recent months domestic drug sales have expanded more sharply than those generated abroad, even if the special effect of the inclusion of eastern German market data in the figures is taken into account.