Manage and monitor healthcare and the market regionally
22.12.2009 11:45
10th Entrepreneur Talks by INSIGHT Health
Even in its tenth year, INSIGHT Health remains true to its core values, seeing itself not only as a reliable service provider but also as a responsible partner in the healthcare market. This was confirmed by the managing directors and board members of the pharmaceutical industry who accepted the invitation to INSIGHT Health's 10th Business Talks at the end of November. Distinguished external experts, such as Professor Dr. Gerd Glaeske from the Centre for Social Policy at the University of Bremen and a member of the German Council of Experts on Developments in the Healthcare System, Heinz Lanfermann, a member of the extended board of the FDP parliamentary group, and Dr. Harald Herholz from the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Hesse, offered their perspectives on the current situation and potential future developments. Dr. Sabine Reiter from the Robert Koch Institute provided an overview of the situation regarding the so-called swine flu.
In his contribution, Mr. Lanfermann makes it clear that the coalition views the healthcare sector as an important driver of growth and employment, and explained that this also applies to the pharmaceutical industry. This will be taken into account in the package of measures on healthcare outlined in the coalition agreement.
The experts at INSIGHT Health are convinced that policymakers must act immediately to address the challenges of ensuring comprehensive, high-quality healthcare. They identified increased data transparency and expanded healthcare research as key priorities, aiming to improve local healthcare provision. Healthcare must be managed at the regional level to be closer to patients. Such healthcare management would reduce overregulation and render drug rebate contracts unnecessary.
This would be all the more significant because rebate agreements have led to considerable uncertainty in the market. While developments in the pharmaceutical market in Germany, both in the pharmacy market and in the statutory health insurance market, have been rather moderate this year, and little surprising has emerged with regard to the individual product segments – be they patented innovations, generics or established original drugs – the rebate agreements have thoroughly disrupted the market this year.
In September of this year, almost half of all prescriptions covered by statutory health insurance were for discounted drugs; for generic drugs, over two-thirds of all prescriptions were discounted. Active ingredients are increasingly becoming subject to discount competition after patent expiration. For example, almost 90 percent of all health insurance funds have already concluded discount agreements with manufacturers of the active ingredient pantoprazole, which only became off-patent at the beginning of May this year.
According to INSIGHT Health, discount tenders pose significant challenges for manufacturers. The company has found that no tender has ever been completely error-free. Frequently, the data provided has been corrected afterward. In some cases, individual lots have even been withdrawn. This forces companies to prepare for multiple tenders with minimal time pressure and to quickly adjust their internal planning. Therefore, INSIGHT Health experts reiterated their call for thorough preparation. This not only increases the likelihood of winning the contract but also avoids unnecessarily high discounts. The service provider offers a wide range of services to provide individual support in this area.
Despite the issue of discounts, INSIGHT Health also keeps a close eye on the numerous other challenges facing pharmaceutical companies in the market. For example, the service provider presented "ADDIS Alert Control," a new service that enables customers to monitor the regional performance of their own products online, even in comparison to the competition.