Image : REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
LONDON (Reuters) - Fifty percent off the first three months of cancer medicine. Buy a course of eye treatment and get extra injections free. A money-back guarantee if your erectile dysfunction pills don't work.
"Special offers" on prescription medicines are all the rage in state-backed healthcare systems across Europe as governments struggle to balance the books.
Such money-off and pay-for-performance schemes are being fuelled by both austerity budgets and competition from cheap generics, which are forcing drugmakers to be more inventive in showing that their expensive new medicines still offer value for money.
The complex schemes do nothing for transparency - something the European Union advocates in medicine pricing - but they often suit both governments and companies, with the latter keen to avoid commercially damaging cuts in list prices.
"Global companies do not want their list prices to drop because that will have a knock-on effect as different countries increasingly reference each other over drug prices," said Brian Godman, a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institute.
"The only way round that is for companies to enter into some form of arrangement with the authorities," according to Godman, who works with various health authorities across Europe researching drug pricing and reimbursement options.
27/10/2012 : Ben Hirschler / Yahoo News.
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