Status: 12/20/2022 10:28 am
Some medications, such as fever and cough syrups, are almost unavailable in pharmacies. Health Minister Lauterbach wants to change that: health insurers should pay more for these drugs.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach is planning significant changes to pricing rules for children’s medicines in response to supply bottlenecks. This emerges from a key issues paper for a drug law that Lauterbach presented today.
According to Lauterbach, it is unacceptable that it is currently difficult to get fever juice for a child in Germany that is still available abroad. But he also urged patience: “Discounting has continually worsened drug supplies for decades. Going back won’t happen overnight.”
Karl Lauterbach, SPD, Minister of Health, on drug supply in Germany
Morning Magazine, December 20, 2022
Patients should not overpay
In the longer term, the SPD politician wants to ensure that regulation of the prices of children’s medicines is relaxed, medicines from European manufacturers are back in operation and stocks of cheaper medicines are accumulated. Financial incentives are also intended to make adult cancer drugs and antibiotics more readily available.
According to the key issues document, statutory health insurance companies must be able to pay up to 1.5 times the previous maximum amount for drugs required in case of bottlenecks. Co-payment for drug patients should be limited.
Not every bottleneck in the supply of certain drugs leads to a supply bottleneck, the ministry said, “since suitable alternatives are usually available”. However, these so-called generics would have a smaller share of statutory health insurers’ expenses compared to proprietary drugs.
More production in the EU
In addition to pediatric drugs such as fever and cough syrups, some cancer drugs and antibiotics are in short supply. One reason is that health insurance companies have to contract with the cheapest manufacturers and pharmacies can only sell these drugs. Production was concentrated in low-wage countries and the number of suppliers dropped.
According to the plans, manufacturers that produce cancer drugs and antibiotics in Europe are to be considered again in future tenders. This should cause production to pick up again, Lauterbach said in the ARD and ZDF morning magazine.
In order to avoid future bottlenecks in the supply of necessary medicines, the Federal Ministry of Health plans to develop criteria that will help to identify problems at an early stage. The measures taken should be evaluated by the end of 2025.
More effort for pharmacies
According to the Federal Institute of Medicines and Medical Devices, there are currently around 330 reports of bottlenecks in the supply of preparations. The ministry points out that not every delivery bottleneck also means a supply bottleneck. So alternatives can be purchased or manufactured, but that means more work for pharmacies.
Doctors fear more bottlenecks during the holidays
In addition to Corona, influenza and RS viruses in children are causing many illnesses throughout Germany. Doctors’ representatives fear that the bottlenecks in pediatric medicine will worsen at Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
“At the moment, we are seeing that RS virus infections are decreasing, but more and more children are arriving with flu and other respiratory illnesses,” Jörg Dötsch, president of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, told the media group’s newspapers. Funke. “Due to the situation with staff on vacation, the situation in clinics and offices will be even more tense than it is now.”
World Medical Association President Frank Ulrich Montgomery said: “I assume this acute crisis in pediatric medicine will last until February.” The number of cases of infection is expected to continue to increase in the coming weeks, not only among children but also among adults. “At the same time, children’s hospitals are under additional pressure during the holidays due to reduced duty rosters – especially when many pediatricians in private practice close their offices during this period or reduce office hours.”
Lauterbach wants to change drug pricing rules
Geord Schwarte, ARD Berlin, 20.12.2022 06:11 am