Secret discounts leave patients at drugmakers' mercy
Date
2/19/2021 3:10:02 PM
(MENAFN- Swissinfo)
Some 63% of the drugs that received some kind of discount were cancer drugs. Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
A new study by the University of Zurich has found that using confidential discounts on cancer and other drugs does little to make them available faster and at more affordable prices. This comes amid debate over a plan to keep more drug prices under lock and key in Switzerland.
This content was published on February 19, 2021 - 11:00 February 19, 2021 - 11:00 Jessica Davis Plüss
Jessica covers the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to big global companies and their impact in Switzerland and abroad. She's always looking for a Swiss connection with her native San Francisco and will happily discuss why her hometown has produced some of the greatest innovations but can't seem to solve its housing crisis.
More about the author | English Department
Switzerland has been a model of transparent drug pricing. In 2019, Nora Kronig, deputy director of the Federal Health Office, told SWI swissinfo.ch that the country is 'one of the only countries that is fully transparent about prices. There are no secret deals'.
This appears to be changing according to a study by the University of Zurich published on Wednesday in the LancetExternal link , which found that Switzerland has been increasingly using rebates – a discounted price offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers – since 2012. Starting in 2019, some of the discounts were kept secret.
The number of drugs with a rebate increased from one in 2012 to 51 drugs by October 2020. Of these, at least 14 had no information available to the public about the amount of the rebate or the price paid to pharma manufacturers. Most of these are for cancer drugs.
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