Growth of German pharma market will be hindered by growing generics market

New research by GervanoRA Data Services (GDS) has shown that by 2022, the German pharmaceutical market is predicted to reach $63.3bn, driven by the strong healthcare system, firm patent policies, high healthcare consumption and complete regulatory procedures. In Europe, Germany has the largest healthcare market which is also the fourth largest in the world. However, government initiatives like AMNOG and a growing generics market will hold this growth back.

However, a growing generics market will hinder this growth.

Ramu Jadhav, Managing Director of life sciences at GDS commented, "Germany is the third largest medical device market in the world after the U.S. and Japan and is estimated to reach $43.9bn by 2022. The medical device market accounts for 40% of the EU market."

Jadhav continued: "The Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) covering around 90% of the population and the government expenditure of approximately 11.3% of GDP on healthcare system, one of the highest in European countries drives the healthcare market. Germany ranks fourth globally with 1,183 patent applications submitted to the European Patent Office in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in 2015." Growing patent applications will introduce more new drugs in Germany during the forecast period and is expected to increase the patent drug market.

The German government’s Act Of Reform Of Medicinal Products (Arzneimittelmarkt-Neuordnungsgesetz – AMNOG), a law initiated in 2011 to restructure the pharmaceutical market act as a barrier for the pharmaceutical market, aims to limit the cost of pharmaceuticals and to reduce the growing drug expenditures in the public health sector. The Act obligates pharmaceutical companies to subject their new products to an early evaluation of their additional benefit by the Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss – G-BA) after being launched on the market. These measures have not been welcomed by most drug manufacturers.

Jadhav said: "The government’s drug price freezes, growing generic market and limited drug availability in the mandatory health insurance will also hinder the growth."