BURLINGTON, Mass., Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Decision
Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms
for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that the
pharmaceutical industry must prepare itself for an increasingly
draconian drug pricing environment. While governments in most of
the world’s developed economies already regulate the prices of most
prescription drugs, their control over prices will tighten in the
future. According to Decision Resources’ new Industry Report,
Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement: Key Facts in Mature and
Emerging Markets, even some of the countries that traditionally
play a limited role in price setting are poised to introduce
stricter controls on pharmaceutical pricing in the future.
The German and United Kingdom governments, which have generally
allowed manufacturers relative freedom to set the prices of new
drugs, plan to introduce value-based pricing. The United States
will continue to allow free pricing of pharmaceuticals, but
recently enacted healthcare reform legislation will increase
Medicaid rebates and require manufacturers to offer a 50 percent
discount on drugs prescribed in the Medicare coverage gap.
“Increased pricing control efforts are not limited to mature
markets—governments in emerging markets will also intensify
their efforts,” said Neil Grubert, M.A., director of pricing and
reimbursement research at Decision Resources. “Governments in
emerging markets will pay close attention to how proposed prices in
their countries compare with prices in other major markets and may
demand that manufacturers offer them prices that are lower than
those in advanced economies.”
The report also finds that substantial budget deficits will
force many governments around the world to intensify their efforts
to curb spending on healthcare services. Although prescription
drugs typically account f
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