Better pharmaceutical care increases pharmaceutical spending

 

"With improved care, spending will increase. And as long as a pharmaceutical care deficit must be overcome for many therapeutic indications, increasing pharmaceutical expenses are inevitable. However, this also means that patients are provided with drugs that are at the cutting edge of medical care. In this respect, many care deficits are yet to be eliminated," Cornelia Yzer, director general of the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies (VFA), commented on the current spending figures for pharmaceuticals.

Furthermore, she advised against applying a monthly figure to the entire year. January's figures matched the 2005 annual average and were even significantly below the December figures for the previous year. The Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA) had listed the pharma-ceutical spending of statutory health insurance from January 2004 to January 2005 at 14.5%.

"Since the price level for pharmaceuticals has remained mostly stable for the period under review, the additional expenses of statutory health insurance are not due to price increases but to a greater number and different kind of prescriptions," Yzer said. Compared to January 2005, an increase in prescriptions in January 2006 was recorded especially for insulin-dependent diabetes patients (long-acting insulins: +31 percent, short-acting insulins: +16 percent; insulin accessories: +15 percent; blood sugar tests: +16 percent), patients with increased cholesterol levels (statins: +29 percent) and hypertension patients (between +24 and +11 percent depending on the category).

For insulin-dependent diabetes as well as for hypertension and raised cholesterol levels, many of today's patients in Germany receive none or insufficient pharmaceutical care. According to a 2004 survey, this figure amounts to 40 percent for hypertension. In all three indications, insufficient treatment involves the risk of life-threatening consequences such as myocardial infarction. "Therefore, it is a welcome development that more patients with these diseases are provided with effective treatment," Yzer said. However, additional efforts will be necessary to really overcome care deficits.

This also applies to another example of a blatant care deficit: osteoporosis. Yzer referred to a recent survey of Gmünder Ersatzkasse and the Berlin-based IGES Institute based on which 6.24 million osteoporosis patients in Germany are still not treated with osteoporosis-typical drugs.

Stand: 28.02.2006