Medicinal Products

On 20 November 2023, the UK Government and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (“ABPI”) ‒ the industry body representing the innovative pharmaceutical industry in the UK ‒ announced a new 5-year voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth (“VPAG”).

Although the parties have announced agreement upon heads of terms, it is already clear this is very significant news for the pricing and reimbursement of branded medicines in the UK.  It is likely to represent a paradigm-shift in the way the innovative pharmaceutical industry will view reimbursement.…

Continue Reading VPAG – New 5-Year Pricing Agreement Agreed between UK Government and the UK Pharmaceutical Industry Body (ABPI)

On 29 September 2023, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”) published further guidance (“MHRA Guidance”) on changes to labelling and packaging for medicinal products intended for the UK market (including Northern Ireland) under the Windsor Framework (agreed between the UK and the EU on 27 February 2023, please see our client alert here). 

The MHRA Guidance follows the Agency’s announcement of new labelling and packaging measures in June 2023, which will take effect from 1 January 2025.  The new measures require, amongst other things: (i) medicinal products intended for the UK market to be authorized by the MHRA; (ii) a single UK-wide pack that bears a “UK only” label; and (iii) disapplication of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive 2011/62/EU (“EU FMD”) to UK packs (please see our blog post on this announcement here).

The latest MHRA Guidance provides further detail on the above measures.…

Continue Reading New MHRA Guidance on the Windsor Framework: Detail on Labelling and Packaging Changes

On 30 August 2023, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (“MHRA”) published detailed guidance on its recently announced new International Reliance Procedure (“IRP”) (see our prior blog and audiocast).  The IRP will apply from 1 January 2024 and will replace and significantly expand on existing EU reliance procedures to apply to authorizations…

Orphan drugs have a special position under EU pharma laws. Among other things, the EU orphan drug laws grant the marketing authorization holder (MAH) of an orphan drug a 10 year period of so-called “market exclusivity”. According to Article 8(1) of the Regulation (EC) No. 141/2000 on orphan medicinal products, the EU and the EU…

Germany’s hospital system is reported to be of high quality but is also very expensive by international standards. Hospitals and healthcare payers such as health insurances are exposed to increasing economic constraints. One particular point of criticism is, for example, the current system of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG)-based fees.

Patient treatments are compensated based on the DRGs which effectively leads to a lump-sum payment system per diagnosis (with certain exemptions). This system has pros and cons. As a downside, it is reported to create incentives for over-treatments to generate DRG-based fees per patient.

At the same time, many hospitals in Germany are at risk of closure and insolvency due to financial challenges. The German federal states have thus asked the federal government for financial support to finance the restructuring of the hospital system and prevent hospitals from bankruptcy.…

Continue Reading Germany plans significant hospital reform with broad impact on life sciences companies

Hot on the heels of recent announcements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (see our prior blogs here), the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) has joined the conversation on the use of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) and Machine Learning (“ML”) technologies in the medicinal product lifecycle.

AI and ML have the potential to enhance every…

In an earlier blog, we noted that the German drug pricing and reimbursement laws are among the most complicated legal areas in the entire field of life sciences law. Now, these laws and the respective German market access rules are becoming more complicated. A new law will come into effect in the next few weeks.…

Continue Reading Germany to enact new law with significant changes to drug pricing and reimbursement rules

On 26 May 2023 the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced it plans to introduce an international reliance route for the approval of medicinal products.  This shows the UK is now looking beyond the EU in its approach to recognizing foreign marketing authorizations.  The MHRA is “focused on providing…

On April 27, 2023 the European Commission (“Commission”) released its proposal to introduce a single procedure for the granting of Supplementary Protection Certificates (“SPCs”) throughout the EU.  The changes are intended to complement the new unitary patent procedure that will enter into force on June 1, 2023.  The Commission intends the new unitary SPC to…

Borderline issues arise when the regulatory classification of a product, for example, as a medicine, a medical device or a food supplement, is unclear.  Uncertainty about the regulatory status of a product under development, and consequently uncertainty as to what legal rules need to be followed, can have immense consequences for developers and innovators.  To…