German Reimport Changes Welcomed

The German research-based drug industry group, the VFA, has welcomed a bill to revise part of the country's complex social legislation, the SGB. This has now had its second and third reading in parliament and would alter the position of reimported and patent-protected drugs.

Since 1988, Section 129 of SGB-V has obliged pharmacists to provide more cost-effective drugs based on the prescribed active agent, meaning reimports or parallel-imports. However, these drugs' role in achieving health service economies is disputed. The health funds say they save 500 million Deutschemarks ($324 million) a year, but VFA director Frank Munnich says they have lost significance since the 1980s as German price levels have fallen under the combined impact of generic competition and the fixed-level price support regime, which covers 75% of the reimbursable health fund market.

German drug prices are now around European Union average, he says, and the VFA argues that parallel imports damage German drug firms more than they provide cost advantages to insured patients.