“Partly obscene” profits
Cashier wants profit cover for pharmaceutical companies
7/1/2023 5:56 p.m
The pharmaceutical industry is making advances in important gene therapies. But the prices for medicines and treatments are increasing immeasurably as a result. The health system will not be able to afford that much longer, warns the head of the Techniker Krankenkasse Baas.
In view of rising drug prices, the head of Techniker Krankenkasse, Jens Baas, has called for a “profit cap” for pharmaceutical companies. “We need fair prices for new medicines in the future, consisting of the actual costs incurred and a socially acceptable margin,” says Baas in the “Handelsblatt”. “Then cash registers should only pay for medicines whose manufacturers accept this profit cap.”
Pharmaceutical companies made “some obscene profits,” said Baas. “They are taking money out of our healthcare system in a way that is no longer socially acceptable.” Drug prices would become a “serious problem” for the healthcare system.
“In five to ten years at the latest, we will have so many expensive gene therapies on the market that our healthcare system will no longer be able to afford their widespread use,” he warned. These are medicines that cost millions per patient. “So if we don’t want to have the ugly debate at some point about who gets such immensely expensive therapies and who doesn’t, we have to change the pricing now.”
The demands are also heard in politics. The SPD member of the Bundestag Martina Stamm-Fibich, for example, told the “Handelsblatt” that she basically supports “more price transparency in the pharmaceutical sector”. However, “I think that mandatory disclosure and a fixed margin are the wrong way to go.” The Green politician Paula Piechotta said in turn that the “dramatically increasing costs” are an “alarming development” for the statutory health insurance. This development must be stopped. “It is therefore understandable that the debate is now picking up speed as to how we can keep innovative therapies affordable in the future,” she said. However, new remuneration models would have to continue to offer high incentives for new drugs.