Agreement reached for Sativex pricing in Germany

A German unit of Spain’s largest drugmaker Almirall (ALM: MC), Hermal GmbH and Germany’s National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds agreed this week on a reimbursement amount for the medicine cannabis-based prescription multiple sclerosis spasticity drug Sativex, which the company was near to withdrawing earlier this year after an unacceptable price decision from the country’s authorities (The Pharma Letter March 20).

This new agreement has resulted in an increase to the previously reduced price imposed by the German authorities in the spring which Almirall, the partner for the UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals’ (AIM: GWP) product, had considered to be unacceptably low.

Farid Taha, managing director of Almirall Hermal, and Johann-Magnus von Stackelberg, deputy chairman of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, stated that the negotiations were constructive and fair. “Both parties to the negotiations were interested in a solution that would benefit patients,” said Messrs Taha and von Stackelberg in a joint statement, adding: “That was the foundation on which an agreement was finally reached.”