GERMAN PROTEST OVER FURTHER Rx CUTS

A new controversy has erupted in Germany between the drug industry on the one hand and the doctors and health funds on the other.

Through its association, the BPI, the industry is protesting over the call by the federal commission of doctors and health funds to exclude 21 groups of drugs from reimbursable prescription. The 21 groups are said to include major products, homeopathic and plant-based drugs, and to represent sales of 3 billion Deutschemarks ($1.8 billion), or 10% of total sales volume reimbursed by the funds.

BPI president Hubertus von Loeper says the commission has exceeded its medical brief and legal mandate with this pronouncement; it can give general therapeutical advice or guidance but may not make decisions to exclude certain prescription drugs, which is the remit of the Health Ministry. He noted that the new Health Structure Law envisages, in the period to 1995, the setting-up of an institute for drugs within the health insurance sector to work on a positive list of reimbursable products; this has yet to be established.