Guest comment: Berlin pursues location policy at the expense of the insured

Politicians want to keep pharmaceutical companies in Germany with investment clauses. Health experts Wolfgang Greiner and Gregor Thüsing criticize that the health insurance companies pay the bill.

The authors: Wolfgang Greiner (l.) holds the chair for health economics at Bielefeld University, Gregor Thüsing is director of the Institute for Labor Law at the University of Bonn.

The pharmaceutical industry in Germany currently generates around 17 billion euros in added value and is therefore an important industry - with very high added value per employee: more than 175,000 euros per capita annually.

However, the USA's aggressive tariff and pricing policy for pharmaceuticals is currently causing German manufacturers to rethink their long-term investments in the German location. The USA has so far been the most important and lucrative export market for them.

This in turn triggers fears about the future performance of the German economy and also about the security of the pharmaceutical supply in Germany.

Politicians are trying to prevent German pharmaceutical companies from moving their headquarters to the USA. To this end, it inserted a location clause in the Medical Research Act, which came into force in 2024.

For new medications for which at least five percent of the study participants were recruited in Germany, significant restrictions no longer apply to price negotiations between health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.

The price that statutory health insurance companies reimburse a pharmaceutical company for a prescription drug is generally based on the proven benefits of new drugs for the patient.