Drug importers warn of a further aggravation of drug supply bottlenecks. Reason should be discount agreements.
Drug importers warn of a shortage of certain drugs. These include drugs against cancer, hepatitis C or HIV. The background is a new rule. According to this, manufacturers must give health insurance companies an additional discount of 20 percent for certain products from May. That said the board of directors of the drug importers in Germany, Jörg Geller, of the Funke media group.
Many companies would then no longer offer their products in Germany, he said. “It’s not about fever syrups, which are used for more trivial diseases, but above all about drugs for newer cancer therapies.”
Some manufacturers are more likely to bring drugs that are becoming scarce to markets that promise higher profits. “The health insurance companies are not willing to pay enough for it as part of their discount agreements,” criticized Geller. He criticized the federal government that it was apparently more interested in saving costs than having “highly innovative products” on the market.
