Overview
- TK says aligning prices for the 30 top-selling medicines with international levels could save about €4.37 billion per year for statutory health insurance.
- The insurer proposes three short-term steps with combined annual savings of up to €11 billion: cutting VAT on medicines to 7%, lifting the manufacturer rebate on patent drugs to 17%, and using drug focus lists to guide prescribing.
- TK reports that patent-protected medicines accounted for roughly 7% of dispensed packs in 2024 but nearly 54% of expenditures, citing Leqembi therapy costs of over €40,000 per year.
- According to the analysis, the ten top-selling individual medicines made up just 1% of packs yet more than 11% of GKV spending, with an average pharmacy sale price near €4,300.
- TK bases its estimates on 2024 dispensing volumes extrapolated to all statutory insurers and notes some drugs are up to 76% cheaper in Norway, South Korea, or Japan, with no official government response reported.