Berlin – “A tentative step in the right direction”. This is how the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry eV (BPI) assesses the draft bill for a drug supply bottleneck combating and supply improvement law (ALBVVG) in its statement presented today. “The authors correctly see the cost pressure as the cause and the pricing as a decisive lever for improving the supply situation,” says BPI Managing Director Dr. Kai Joachimsen. “However, the planned measures only relate to very small sub-areas and are unfortunately not consistently implemented as a result, since discount agreements continue to exist for the time being and have “priority” in the pharmacy when dispensing. The bottleneck stays tight, so it doesn’t help if the dregs are tinkered with with a lot of bureaucracy. Unfortunately, notable improvements are not to be expected. It is no longer a matter of years, but months to prevent something worse from happening.”
“Supply bottlenecks do not only exist in the areas of pediatric medicines, antibiotics and oncologicals. We therefore need solutions that enable provider diversity in the entire basic service, and we need it now. After discounts have been deducted, the average reimbursement price for generics is an average of six cents per day of therapy. Under these conditions, production and delivery for our supply are logically no longer feasible. The BPI drew attention to this connection at an early stage and at the same time presented proposals such as how to achieve more supplier diversity and supply security through the mandatory multiple awarding of discount agreements and the strengthening of domestic production. This is what the draft law takes up at least in essence. But it takes a bigger shot to achieve this goal. The vicious circle of ever newer and stricter price regulations such as the extension of the price moratorium, fixed amounts, mandatory discounts and ruinous discount agreements on the one hand and immense cost increases caused by the crisis on the other must be broken.”
“Specifically, the currently deterrent framework conditions for investments must be transformed into incentives for market participation. Additional storage and reporting obligations, as provided for in the draft law, have a counterproductive effect and do not prevent a single supply bottleneck. Rather, the BPI has long been proposing further structural changes for primary care medicinal products. One measure would be the abolition of the price moratorium. Another crucial component is the generally mandatory multiple awarding of discount agreements. This is the only way to minimize the risk of failure, avoid additional burdens for companies and achieve more supplier diversity and delivery security. It is no longer “5 to 12”, but has been so far for years that more and more medicines are no longer available. Still posting rebate contracts when there are fewer than four vendors now drastically worsens the situation. There are only enough suppliers in functioning markets,” says Joachimsen.
You can find all of the BPI’s suggested solutions here here.
Note: The use of the photo is free of charge with the source shutterstock_Bern James and in connection with the press release.