Pharmaceutical companies are encouraged by plans to give private companies easier access to medical data.
(Photo: E+/Getty Images)
Berlin In view of falling energy prices and better general conditions, more pharmaceutical companies want to invest in Germany again. This emerges from the as yet unpublished health report of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), which is available to the Handelsblatt.
Accordingly, 38 percent of companies want to invest more in the next twelve months, at the beginning of the year it was 25 percent. Only every fifth company in the industry is planning fewer investments, most recently it was almost every third. Also in medical technology (19 after last nine percent) the companies are more expansive than at the beginning of the year.
“The mood in the pharmaceutical industry has improved significantly compared to the bad situation at the beginning of the year,” said Deputy DIHK General Manager Achim Dercks to the Handelsblatt. That is surprising in view of the industry as a whole, whose investment plans for Germany are less positive.
The numbers are also surprising because pharmaceutical companies have recently increasingly threatened to leave Germany. The Mainz-based company Biontech, for example, announced that it would set up a new research center in Great Britain. Bayer wants to shift its pharmaceutical focus to the USA and China.
The industry has been complaining for years about high hurdles for research and politically prescribed cuts. The pharmaceutical company Roche lodged a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court against an austerity law that Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) brought through the Bundestag last year.
The industry was angry with the Federal Minister of Health.
(Photo: dpa)
According to Dercks, the work of the Minister of Health, of all things, is now also responsible for the industry’s greater willingness to invest. “The mood is likely to have brightened, mainly due to some political decisions,” he said. This included Lauterbach’s plans to create significantly better conditions for industry to access medical data and use them for research.
Sentiment in the healthcare industry more positive overall
The plans are currently available as a draft bill and should be approved this year. One component of Lauterbach’s project is the electronic patient file, which all those with statutory health insurance who do not object will receive it by 2025. On a voluntary basis, users can pass on their data to research.
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“The healthcare industry has so far largely relied on medical data from abroad,” said Dercks. However, high-quality health data is important in order to develop, for example, personalized drug therapies or AI-supported medical products. Now private research should also be able to use the data from the Federal Health Research Center.
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According to Dercks, new regulations on drug reform may also have played a role. In the future, the production of certain medicines in the EU should have a higher priority in tenders for health insurance contracts. A law to this effect was passed in the Bundestag shortly before the summer break.
Also in medical technology (19 after last nine percent) the companies are more expansive than at the beginning of the year. The trade in health goods, on the other hand, wants to invest less. Overall, sentiment in many sectors remains subdued.
According to the survey, 68 percent of all healthcare companies surveyed classify the lack of suitable personnel as the greatest risk for their business – a new all-time high. At 81 percent, companies in health and social services such as hospitals and care facilities are most affected by the staff shortage.
Overall, companies are only slightly more positive about their business situation than at the beginning of the year. Almost a third rated their situation as “good”, a slight improvement on 30 percent from the previous survey.
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