Lilly CEO tells German audience there is a need for shift in thinking on health reform; says German uptake of new drugs slow

In an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany today, US drug major Eli Lilly's chairman and chief executive, John Lechleiter, said that innovation holds the key to solving one of health care's thorniest dilemmas: how to improve quality and access while controlling costs. He described how innovative medicines - which have helped dramatically increase lifespans of both Germans and Americans over the past century - could further improve people's health, replace more expensive treatments, and provide strong economic benefits by generating thousands of research jobs.

Dr Lechleiter called on societies to rethink health care reform with two shifts in thinking: "From an emphasis on cost to an understanding of value'and from thinking in terms of the broad population to focusing on meeting the needs of individual patients." He explained that focusing exclusively on the cost of specific treatments can have the unintended effect of increasing health care spending over time. He cited examples of pharmaceuticals that can reduce overall costs to society, from antiretroviral medicines that decrease costs for treating HIV/AIDS by 16% in the USS to "statin" medications that can prevent or delay heart disease, enhancing lives while reducing the impact of spending on surgeries and hospitalizations.

"New medicines to provide better treatment for the pandemic of diabetes, to alleviate the growing human and economic toll of Alzheimer's disease or to address countless other unmet medical needs around the world could have dramatic positive impacts not only on the quality human life, but also on the capacity of our health care systems and the costs they incur," said Dr Lechleiter.