Research and Markets: The Imposition of Reference Pricing Has Dramatically Altered the German Statin Market, and Atorvastatin (Pfizer's Sortis) Has Been the Main Casualty.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c34892) has announced the addition of The Impact of German Reference Pricing of Statins: Implications for the Pharmaceutical Industry to their offering.

Reference pricing-the practice of setting a maximum reimbursement price and then requiring patients to pay any excess if the manufacturer sets the retail price above the reference price-is the German government's main weapon in the war it has declared on "sham innovations" in the pharmaceutical market. Most countries that practice reference pricing limit it to drugs that are off patent, but Germany has recently extended this measure to several drug classes that include patent-protected medicines: proton pump inhibitors, sartans, triptans, antianemic agents, fluoroquinolones, heparins, macrolides, serotonin (5-HT3) receptor antagonists, triazole antimycotics, and-most notably-statins. Ultimately, the German government aims to include 70-80% of prescription drugs in the reference pricing system. The only products safeguarded against this threat are drugs that are deemed to be innovative or that have demonstrable therapeutic superiority over existing therapies in their class. The government has also very recently announced plans to introduce more aggressive reference prices and to introduce daily cost of therapy limits for frequently prescribed drug classes. Other countries that practice reference pricing (e.g., Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain) will closely observe the expansion of reference pricing in Germany and could follow suit.

The imposition of reference pricing has dramatically altered the German statin market, and atorvastatin (Pfizer's Sortis) has been the main casualty. Pfizer has refused to cut the price of Sortis and has actively campaigned against the reference pricing of its drug, a strategy that has provoked widespread criticism. Other manufacturers affected by this policy have cut their prices to reference price levels. However, because these prices are still much higher than generics prices, the branded statins have lost ground to generic simvastatin products-a trend that began in 2003. Physicians have switched most patients who had been taking atorvastatin to simvastatin, but a wide-ranging survey conducted by Decision Resources found that a majority of general practitioners and internists still consider atorvastatin to be one of the best drugs in its class, and many would return patients to this drug if it were less expensive.

In this report, Decision Resources provides an overview of Germany's health care system, pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement environment, and cost-containment measures. It focuses particularly on reference pricing and how the expansion of this system to include patent-protected drugs has affected the statin market. Based on data from an online survey, the author analyzes the impact of the reference pricing of statins on physician and patient behaviour. The report concludes with a detailed assessment of the general outlook and implications for the pharmaceutical industry in Germany and the other major European pharmaceutical markets (i.e., France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom).

Contents Include:

--Executive Summary

--Chapter 1 Introduction

--Chapter 2 Overview of Dyslipidemia

--Chapter 3 Organization and Funding of the German Health Care System

--Chapter 4 Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement

--Chapter 5 Reference Pricing

--Chapter 6 Other Cost-Containment Measures

--Chapter 7 Impact of Statin Reference Pricing on Physician Behavior

--Chapter 8 Impact of Statin Reference Pricing on Patient Behavior

--Chapter 9 Outlook and Implications

--Tables and Figures

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c34892

Source: Datamonitor