E-drug: FT on Pfizer and drug prices in France
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Copied from Ip-health. KM]
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011210000786
Pfizer threatens boycott of new drugs in France: Bid to force higher prices
in Europe
Financial Times; Dec 10, 2001
By GEOFF DYER, ADRIAN MICHAELS and RAPHAEL MINDER
Pfizer, the US drugs company, is to threaten to withhold new treatments
from France unless the government allows higher drugs prices.
The world's largest drugs company, which is an increasingly vocal critic of
European health policies, will meet Lionel Jospin, the French prime
minister, early next year to press its case for reform of France's
drugs-pricing regime.
Pfizer is also trying to enlist support from other large drugs companies,
such as Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline, both of which have French-educated
chief executives.
"We have not been joined by others yet," said Hank McKinnell, Pfizer chief
executive. "But we will be asking them."
The drugs industry has had a long-standing conflict with European
governments over the deep discounts demanded on their drugs.
The companies say that in the US, where they have been generally free to
charge what they like, the higher profit margins have fuelled research and
development.
The companies have endured a public relations onslaught this year over
prices and access to drugs.
Even in the US, a number of individual states have negotiated discounts.
Most companies, though agreeing with Pfizer, have been less
confrontational.
Tom McKillop, chief executive of AstraZeneca, said: "Europe has got to get
its act together. I think all the major pharmaceutical companies are making
decisions not to launch products."
Mr McKinnell said his company would be meeting politicians in Canada next
year and claimed many other countries could see access to drugs withdrawn.
"In Austria," he said, "the pharmacists earn more than we do."
Pfizer argues that patients in France are being denied access to important
new drugs because once they are approved by regulators, they are then
bogged down in negotiations on price.
"These talks can take two to three years longer in France than in any other
country," Mr McKinnell said in an interview.
The French government, which is struggling to meet budget targets, has
recently stepped up efforts to contain the cost of reimbursing drugs.
Last June, it announced price cuts on some medicines designed to save the
healthcare agency, Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie, FFr4bn-FFr5bn
(Dollars 542m-Dollars 678m) a year.
Pfizer is angry that the discounts it is forced to give in France also
affect the prices it can charge in some other markets.
Japan, for example, bases the prices it asks for on a weighted average of
the charges in other markets.
Mr McKinnell said that by not launching a new drug in France, Pfizer could
charge more for it in Japan.
www.ft.com/healthcare
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html