FRANKFURT (Reuters Health) – The head of the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA) on Wednesday strongly criticized attempts by drug manufacturers to kill parts of the Health Ministry's proposed bill designed to cut the cost of prescription drug prices by 1.0 billion to 1.5 billion euros.
Hans-G?nter Friese, president of the Association of Pharmacists, said drug makers were participating in "modern day indulgence trading," referring to the Middle Age practice of paying the Roman Catholic Church for indulgences. "Here is an attempt to hinder passage of the drug bill with the power of money," he said in a prepared statement.
Friese was referring in part to an anonymously sourced news report on Tuesday in the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The newspaper said the German Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA) had offered a one-time payment of 300 million German marks to the government to kill parts of the proposed drug bill (see Reuters Health report October 30, 2001).
The bill, currently being debated in Parliament, includes a section that would require doctors to prescribe drugs by generic names, rather than the more expensive brand names, to patients covered by state-backed health insurance companies. The bill also would force drug companies to cut by 4% the price of drugs protected by patents–with no generic competition–for a 2-year period.
Both measures are not popular with the powerful German pharmaceutical lobby, and it is turning into a major political battle. Drug companies are warning that enactment of the bill would stifle development of new drugs and trigger thousands of job losses. A major labor union also opposes the bill on job-loss grounds.
Friese said that it is "legitimate and correct" in a democracy to propose alternatives while proposed laws are being debated. But he added that drug manufacturers attempts to kill the proposed bill in the last few weeks has turned the democratic process of legislation into an auction or a bazaar.
Friese noted that pharmacists in Switzerland, France and the Netherlands are allowed to fill patient prescriptions with the cheapest generic drugs, and that such a system should be legal in Germany. Currently in Germany, if doctors specifically prescribe more expensive name-brand drugs, pharmacists are not allowed to substitute generic drugs.
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