Third Meeting of the Federal Government’s Pharma Dialogue

The third meeting of the Federal Government’s Pharma Dialogue took place on 8 October 2015. For the meeting, the five associations involved – BAH, BIO Deutschland, BPI, Pro Generika and vfa – had submitted two jointly prepared position papers to the Federal Government. The industry’s views on Germany as a production location were compiled in a position paper titled “The Pharmaceutical Industry as the Robust Core of the Healthcare Economy”, while the second position paper articulated its stance on the “Opportunities for Innovation Financing and Innovation Protection”.

At the invitation of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), the meeting was attended by the presidents of the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), Karl Broich and Klaus Cichutek respectively; representatives from the Federal Joint Committee of Physicians and Health Insurance Funds (G-BA) and the head of the Joint Committee’s Medicinal Products Department, Thomas Müller; along with representatives from pharmaceutical manufacturers, science, and the mining, chemical and energy trade union IG BCE. BIO Deutschland was represented at this dialogue meeting by board members Christian Schetter and Jan Schmidt-Brand. 

The agenda of meeting included three main topics: the value-added chain and production; opportunities for innovation financing and innovation protection; and pharma 2025 – trends and future-oriented fields in the pharmaceutical and medicinal products sector. In introductory remarks, Lutz Stroppe, Permanent State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health, and Georg Schütte, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, noted that the G7 conferences of the health and research ministers were currently being held in Berlin, and that the results of the Pharma Dialogue’s work on the topic of antibiotics, for which the Federal Government was thankful, had been discussed at the conferences. 

Wolfgang Scheremet, department head at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), opened the meeting by pointing out that strengthening Germany’s position as a location for the pharmaceutical industry was a goal of the Federal Government.

As regards innovation financing, Jan Schmidt-Brand gave a short talk about the importance of private equity for growth financing. He explained the difficulties and misplaced incentives of the current framework conditions. Lastly, he called for the removal of barriers and for more targeted innovation financing.

At the centre of the third dialogue meeting were two topics – production location and innovation/start-up financing – that are of major significance for the Federal Government and for the industry in terms of strengthening Germany as a location for the pharmaceutical industry. To this end, it has been possible to give a strong voice to the industry’s concerns thanks to the position papers submitted in the run-up to the meeting. It also become clear in the meeting that future developments in new therapies offer tremendous opportunities for Germany as a production location, which policymakers can fully leverage by improving the framework conditions. Overall, the meeting facilitated a very constructive dialogue on ways to further strengthen Germany as an R&D and production location for the pharmaceutical industry.

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Attendees of the third meeting of the Federal Government’s Pharma Dialogue: 4th to 6th. on the left Wolfgang Scheremet (Head of the Industry Department, BMWi), Georg Schütte (Secretary of State BMBF), Lutz Stroppe (Secretary of State BMG), 10th on the left Christian Schetter and  9th on the left Jan Schmidt-Brand (Board Members BIO Deutschland), 11th on the right Viola Bronsema (Managing Director BIO Deutschland) © Schwerdel-Schmidt/BMG

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