German Drug Report Does Rounds Despite Ban

In Germany, data for 1996 from an unpublished 1997 report onprescription drugs has been made widely available, despite a block on the publication by the courts, following moves by three drugmakers. The companies - Willmar Schwabe, Strathmann and Bionorica - took legal action because the report contained a table of drugs with total prescription volume of 7.1 billion Deutschemarks ($3.97 billion) whose effectiveness was described as being in dispute.

The courts in Dusseldorf and Hamburg ruled that the report and lists constituted impermissible intervention in free competition. However, one of the authors of the study, Heidelberg pharmacologist Ulrich Schwabe, has detailed its contents and copies of the unpublished report are reportedly doing the rounds of drug firms.

Prof Schwabe's study notes that drug spending in Germany has reached a new record level of 34.7 billion marks, despite cost-cutting and reform measures and, effectively, the savings achieved through the 1992 Health Structure Law have been wiped out. While the number of drug packs prescribed declined 3.5%, the prescribing of more costly medicines went up 6.7%. It was only through emergency action last October that the Federation of Panel Doctors was able to avoid a large and widespread overspending on drug budgets. One of the Federation's recommendations to panel members was for them to avoid prescribing drugs whose efficacy was in doubt.