AstraZeneca (AZN) recently set the price of its new Brilique blood thinner, which it hopes will become its next blockbuster drug, at €1.69 ($2.38) per pill in Germany. Whether it will be allowed to maintain that price in Europe's largest drug market remains to be seen. The British drugmaker, insurers, and German regulators are bracing for a yearlong battle over the medicine's value, the first test of a new pricing law in Europe's biggest economy.
What makes the legislation so wrenching for Big Pharma is that drug companies previously needed to show only that a drug was safe and worked better than a placebo. Now the onus is on companies to prove not just that a drug works but that it is actually worth more than older therapies. If a drugmaker can't convince German regulators that its compound has greater efficacy or additional benefits, then it cannot charge more than rival medicines already on the market.
Friday, June 03, 2011
A New Pricing Game for Drugmakers in Europe - BusinessWeek
via businessweek.com
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