TK boss calls for a profit cap for pharmaceutical companies

Berlin It is a challenge to the pharmaceutical industry in order to stop the increase in pharmaceutical spending by statutory health insurance companies. Jens Baas, head of the largest statutory health insurance company, Techniker-Krankenkasse (TK), calls for a “profit cap” for pharmaceutical companies.

“We need fair prices for new drugs for the future, consisting of the actual costs incurred and a socially acceptable margin,” Baas told the Handelsblatt. “Then insurance companies should only pay for drugs whose manufacturers accept this profit cap.”

Pharmaceutical companies made “sometimes obscene profits,” said Baas, one of the most influential cashiers. “They are taking money out of our healthcare system in a way that is no longer socially acceptable.” The reimbursement of medicines must therefore be reformed. Because drug prices would become a “serious problem” for the healthcare system.