EuroPharma Today

Spotlight on Germany: Pfizer Takes Holistic Approach to Defending Aricept

With rebate contracts between payers and drug firms on the rise in Germany, around patented drugs as well as generics, the hunt is on for more creative deal structures that avoid straight discounting.

GSK Upbeat On Alli In EU As Global Consumer Sales Show Healthy Gains

Alli is off to the races in Europe, where it is generating high sales since launching in April, GlaxoSmithKline says. The orlistat 60 mg product is seeing "sustained demand through the subsequent weeks of performance," GSK CEO Andrew Witty said July 22 during the firm's fiscal 2009 second-quarter earnings call.

NICE Enough? Watchdog’s Basic Approach Is Sound, But More Transparency Is Urged

A report commissioned earlier this year by the UK's cost-effectiveness watchdog, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, concludes that NICE's basic measure for assessing a drug's cost-effectiveness, the QALY (quality-adjusted life year) is sound, but could be improved to take into account a drug's wider benefits. Moreover, NICE methodologies and the criteria used in its judgments should be more clearly communicated.

Spotlight on Germany: Wyeth Looks Beyond Discounting

With companies under increasing pressure in Germany to offer payers rebate deals around patented drugs, some are seeking to avoid straight price-cutting through providing added value elsewhere. In our third snapshot of the changing reimbursement landscape in Germany, we look in more detail at Wyeth's compliance scheme around rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel. 

Spotlight on Germany: Payers Seek More Deals with Pharmas, Doctors

Drug firms should expect stronger calls for rebate deals around patented drugs in Germany as the country’s payers increase their influence on prescribing decisions via parallel tie-ups with doctors’ associations. "I expect contracts around on-patent drugs will become more numerous, as in the next months and years there will also be more contracts between health funds and independent doctors’ associations in Germany," sums up Christopher Hermann, Chief Negotiator and Deputy CEO at Germany’s largest insurer, AOK.

UK Life Sciences Package Includes Financial Relief Too

LONDON - The UK 's Life Sciences Blueprint--an urgent bid to kick-start a sector that's increasingly important to the nation's future growth, especially in the light of the downturn in financial services--offers some near-term financial relief to cash-strapped biotechs, as well as measures to boost innovation and access.

European Launch for Given's Next-Gen Colonoscopy PillCam In November

Given Imaging plans to launch its PillCam COLON 2 endoscopy capsule in Europe this year and expects it to overcome many of the limitations of the first-generation PillCam COLON .

The Israeli firm is currently finishing some R&D trials of the device in Israel and aims to launch the "revolutionary technology" at the Gastro 2009 conference in London in November, according to Given CEO Homi Shamir.  The Gastro meeting is sponsored by the United European Gastroenterology Federation.

Germany Gets Creative with Payer-Pharmaco Contracts

Rebate contracts between German health insurance funds (sick funds) and generic firms have become widespread since such contracts were permitted in 2007. But sick funds may also negotiate deals directly on patented drugs, with innovative drug firms. And that, increasingly, is where the action is in Europe’s largest market.

UK Gov't Outlines NICE's New 'Innovation Pass'

A new "Innovation Pass", to be administered by UK cost-effectiveness watchdog the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), was a top action item within the UK government’s new Life Sciences Blueprint, unveiled at Imperial College Business Center in London today.

EU Teleprevir Milestones for Sale, says Vertex

A big biotech known as much for its fundraising acumen as its potential game-breaker hepatitis C drug telaprevir, Vertex is seeking to sell off the EU milestones for the protease inhibitor in exchange for immediate cash.