German Storm Over Pharmacy Prices Move

German pharmacists are enraged at moves by the federal states' healthministers to put drug supplies to nursing and care homes for the elderly on the same footing as supplies to the hospital sector. They say the result will be cheaper drugs for nursing home patients, and pharmacists losing market share.

German ex-pharmacy drug prices are controlled through the drug price regulation, which fixes the margins for wholesalers and pharmacists starting from the ex-factory price. However, this does not apply to the hospitals and clinics sector, so drugs in these establishments are supplied at a lower price than in the pharmacies.

The Health Committee of the Parliamentary Upper House, to which the state health ministers belong, has recommended a change in the law following proposals from Berlin and some other states. These suggest that hospital pharmacies would supply drugs to patients who had been treated by hospital doctors on an out-patient basis. Also, under a Bavarian proposal, patients released from clinics would obtain final-phase treatment drugs from the hospital or clinic. Finally, nursing homes would be treated on the same basis as hospitals in relation to drug supply.