> Dear Prof. Cassel, what question would you have liked to ask Mr. Zipperer after your lecture?
Cassel: Mr. Zipperer has made it clear that he is happy with his
Arbitration board sees itself as a mediator and this intention is expressed in its arbitration awards. When I look at my figures, you can see that the arbitration awards regarding the reimbursement amounts are very close to the ideas of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, but not to those of the pharmaceutical industry. Mr. Zipperer, how can you explain that? Or: Is this your understanding of a mediator?
Zipperer: You have to distinguish between two things here. On the one hand: If the drug has no additional benefit, I am bound to an upper limit. This means nothing other than that the arbitration board has no leeway when it comes to the price. Since a whole range of medicines have no additional benefit, this point plays a not insignificant role.

This is certainly the case with medicines that are recognized
Additional benefits different.
Zipperer: Exactly. What matters here is the value, rank and weight that the Federal Joint Committee has given the additional benefit. Of course, “significant” has a completely different meaning than “minor.”

Can you illustrate this with a real case?
Zipperer: I take the Sativex case with a slight additional benefit: this was where the arbitration board was located
Decision very close to the price expectations of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds. The statements made by the patient representative who was consulted also played an important role. We were so impressed by his comments that we were of the opinion that we had to monetarily increase or improve the weight of the additional benefit, which we cannot change in its classification.

How is it that the most diverse prices, as Prof. Cassel has also shown, are so often far below the average price of the European price basket? One could assume that this price level should represent the lower floor.
Zipperer: I'm already aware of that. Well

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