expenditure increasing Drugs, especially for innovative cancer treatments, the health system is faced with major challenges. So the medicines expenditure per capita increased between 2014 and 2017, to 13 percent. “It needs additional instruments to limit the price increases,” said Thomas Christians, Deputy Director of the Federal office for health (BAG), at a media event on the subject of drug prices.
The Problem is that cancer will always be administered more frequently several expensive cancer medicines in so-called combination therapies. In the case of breast cancer, for example, Roche’s cancer drug Perjeta and Herceptin used together.
At the time of approval of the rates for such combination therapies, the BAG is wrestling with the industry to discounts. It is about the fact that the prices of the medicines are not simply added together. For example, Roche has agreed after a long struggle, the group granted Perjeta per pack discount 452.33 Swiss francs, is administered to the medium together with Herceptin.
image to enlarge
However, this so-called price are not provided for models legally so far. The BAG can enforce no discounts against the will of the industry. Worse still, Purely theoretically, a pharmaceutical does not need to keep companies once the agreed discounts. Neither the BAG nor the health insurance companies have the opportunity, you will have to go to court to enforce.
at Least the latter wants to change BAG-Vice-Christians now. “It should be possible, the agreed upon discounts to be legally enforceable,” he said in Bern. This is all the more important, because to foresee is that the BAG must grab more often is to such pricing models, in order to keep the rise in the price of drugs under control to some extent.
Currently, there are 21 such discount solutions. “Alone, Roche plans, more than 50 new combination therapies allow,” said Christians. The rings, the final price was also a reason why the BAG won’t make it often, for new active substances approved within the legally stipulated period of 60 days, a price for taking on the so-called specialties list. Medications on this list of the BAG, must be reimbursed by the health insurers. According to Jörg Indermitte, head of section, medicinal product shots of the BAG, is currently being completed slightly less than one-fifth of all admission requests too late.
request explode
And the number of new applications is increasing the numbers rapidly: According to the BAG, is expected this year, with 80 to approximately 90 new proposals. “Next year we expect over 150 new applications,” says Christian. And about half of the applications concerned treatments, the cost of more than 100’000 Swiss francs per year caused. The complex Dossiers, edit, calls Christians to an increase in the relevant Department. Today, the BAG also has a Team of 20 employees, which deals with the drugs prices.
Currently, the BAG is published on its Website, which is the group for which discounts the Swiss authority is internationally an exception. But the Thomas Christians was that in the future, the office will need to take distance. “The pharmaceutical companies are unlikely to accept that a very high volume of payments will be published.” Because most of the price regulatory authorities in Europe rely on international price comparisons. Therefore, the industry is keen to the fact that only the official list prices but not net prices are public.
Neither the Fund Association Curafutura still Interpharma wanted to comment on the plans to make discounts legally enforceable, on Friday. No exact plans were, it was said. Treasury representatives did not complain, however, that the solve enforceability of the discounts on the basic problem: namely, that the BAG had no way to force discounts in the price negotiations. The office stay on the well-being of the industry want to be dependent.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 10.05.2019, 21:37 PM
