Danish Pharma agrees three-year cap on drug prices

Late December 2011 saw the signing of a three-year price-cap agreement on medicine prices – until December 31, 2014 – by Denmark’s Minister of Health and Prevention, Astrid Krag, and the chairperson of the Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Lif), Dorthe Mikkelsen.

The accord is a continuation of the existing agreement from 2008, and means that the price of reimbursable prescription medicines sold through Danish pharmacies over the next 15 months cannot be raised over the cap that applies in the present price-cap agreement. The parties have agreed that the present cap should continue until April 1, 2013, when the cap can be adjusted for the first time by 1.5%. The cap will be adjusted by a further 1.5% on April 1, 2014. The adjustment has been agreed to take some account of the consequences of general cost trends.

Ida Sofie Jensen, chief executive of Lif, comments: “The signed agreement is the result of a very lengthy negotiation process. This is now the third time that we have made an agreement with the Minister of Health and, since the first agreement was made in 2006, we have demonstrated that we can keep to our word. We also intend to keep to our word over the coming three years.”