GERMAN BPI: MORE PATIENT CHARGES

The German pharmaceutical industry association, the BPI, has called for the principle under which patients contribute to the cost of their drugs to be extended to all reimbursable drug products, including those which have now been included in the government's fixed-level price support regime.

The call from the BPI has come ahead of expected new moves by the Ministry of Health to try to stem increases in health care costs. The BPI's director, Ulrich Vorderwuelbecke, has said that an extension of the fixed-level price support regime would be a blind alley, and added that the regime has already led to market fragmentation and that it is inimical to innovation.

Volume growth in pharmaceutical sales was 5.6% in 1991 and, according to the BPI, accounted for half of western German drug sales growth in pharmacies, where sales went up 11.7% to 18.05 billion marks ($10.9 billion). Price increases accounted for only 1.6% of the increase in sales volume.