04.07.2023 – 15:34
BPI Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry
Berlin (ots)
“The fact that the federal budget for 2024 will save the most in the health department is a completely wrong signal,” says BPI Managing Director Dr. Kai Joachimsen. “Health and medical progress are valuable assets that you have to invest in.” The current criticism of the GKV against high-priced drug innovations is inappropriate for him: “For years, the GKV expenditure on drugs has been constant at around one percent of the gross domestic product. Nevertheless, the politicians already put the ax to the supply last year with the GKV Financial Stabilization Act with innovations that are not only of inestimable value for the patients, but also for the economic development of Germany.”
“If a new, equivalent therapy option is to cost significantly less than the existing preparation, something will go wrong. What incentives are there then to conduct research and development in Germany and what effects does that have on our competitiveness? None positive and therefore in the SHI drug supply no longer takes place. Sustainable solutions require a clean and correct assignment of tasks for society as a whole and their financing in the SHI. Above all, a rule-based annual dynamization of the federal participation for non-insurance services should be mentioned. An increase in the insufficient flat-rate contributions of the Federal government for the long-term unemployed would relieve the GKV with around ten billion euros, for example,” says Joachimsen.
“It is generally far too short-sighted to see new medicines purely as a cause of costs. The savings from new therapies from a social perspective, such as productivity due to lower morbidity, but also saved therapy costs, should not be lost sight of, according to the BPI General Manager: “In addition, high-priced innovations such as gene therapies are not used on a broad basis, but rather in a targeted manner after precise indications, mostly in centers. There are already numerous proposals for innovative reimbursement models in which, for example, annual reimbursement amounts are linked to the success of the therapy. Instead of discrediting such therapies in an irresponsible manner, it would be good if the insurance companies actively participated in the development of such models.”
“Suggestions such as a price cap are not a solution. The complex and financially risky research and development of drugs can quickly result in investments running into billions. These costs have to be amortized, and today’s drugs also finance tomorrow’s drugs. That’s the only way medical progress can happen It’s no surprise, given the demographic change, that the majority of statutory health insurance drug costs are accounted for by new drugs,” says Dr. Joachimsen. After deduction of all deductions, the statutory health insurance funds for pharmaceuticals are currently around ten percent of the total expenditure. Measured against their enormous therapeutic value, this proportion is not high and the expenditure is not an end in itself. In millions of cases, they enable a better quality of life, participation in society and working life and, ideally, even healing. This is a “return on investment” for society as a whole.
Press contact:
Andreas Aumann (press spokesman), Tel. 030 27909-123, [email protected])
Original content from: BPI Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, transmitted by news aktuell