Pfizer slams French, EU Rx price policies

Pfizer has launched a blistering attack on European and French drug price policies and is arguing that low prices are the reason behind the shift of R&D out of Europe.

As France prepared to launch its new drug policy, Pfizer chief executive Hank McKinnell called European pricing polices unacceptable. In France, as elsewhere in Europe, new drugs are sold at low prices while older products, many of which are patent-expired, are more expensive than elsewhere. What is needed is exactly the opposite, he said.

Under the current system, innovation is not rewarded, at a time when drug R&D investment is higher than ever, he said, adding that a return on investment on the $1.7 billion cost of R&D for a new drug is far from assured. All this explains the shift of European research to the USA, where prices are judged to be more attractive; Pfizer closed its largest French R&D center at Fresnes last year.