Govts pay for good drugs, says Bayer chief

"When we create innovative drugs with excellent cost effectiveness, each government makes them the subject of reimbursement in its health insurance programs," said Werner Wenning, chairman of the management board of Germany's Bayer AG at a press conference in Osaka, Japan, where the firm has recently opened a new office.

Drug pricing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry has been mounting because governments in all the developed nations are plagued with increasing medical expenses, he noted. Touching on the cost reduction plans of individual governments, including the National Health Insurance drug price revision in Japan, he cited Bayer's capabilities in creating new compounds, adding: "governments ought to approve reimbursement of innovative drugs with cost effectiveness," the result of "aggressive R&D investment in order to keep sustainable growth." He highlighted the case of the drugmaker's novel treatment for renal cancer, Nexavar (sorafenib), which was launched in Japan in April 2008, saying that "a proper [NIH] price for the drug has been established."

Turning to market opportunities, Mr Wenning said: "it is quite obvious that growth in Japan cannot be as dynamic as growth in China: Japan is a very mature, advanced country that is firmly integrated in the global economy." Therefore, he regards the latter as the most important market in Asia/Pacific, and stressed that Bayer's is putting greater emphasis on the Japanese market.