Industry leaders in Europe warn that if the U.S. continues to sign more deals with companies aimed at reducing prices for American citizens while enhancing U.S. investments, European patients will be impacted.
Due to the most-favored nation policy, which sees Washington replicating some EU countries’ prices, companies are choosing not to launch new drugs in Europe in order to maintain higher prices in the U.S. for larger profits. Additionally, there is a growing tendency for companies to choose America for research and manufacturing.
“Companies may hesitate to launch in Europe or in Japan or Canada if they think that the price in Europe or Japan or Canada will be lower than the price they could obtain in the U.S.,” Adrian van den Hoven, director general of Medicines for Europe, said to POLITICO. “That’s the risk for Europe going forward.” Medicines for Europe represents the generics industry, which largely produces cheaper off-patent medicines. Two large generics firms that also make branded drugs were included in the nine new deals.
In the meantime, Europe’s current major offer to encourage industry to remain local—a proposed patent extension for certain biotech drugs—is considered too little too late by some. The industry states that the patent extension comes with numerous conditions and will not be enacted in time to prevent the sector from shifting more towards America where market conditions are more favorable.
According to Alexander Natz, secretary general of the European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, the patent extension and other industry incentives in the proposed Biotech Act are a step in the right direction. However, “it’s probably too late if we wait for the Biotech Act” to come into effect, which could take a couple of years, he noted.
Capturing more companies
The latest deals signify a move away from the previous 17 deals with large pharmaceutical companies worth billions of dollars and include a variety of firms, from small specialist companies with only a few licensed drugs to large generic drugmakers.
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