Listen to this article„I can still recall the smell which fascinated me when I first visited a pharmacy as a boy“ says Dr. Axel Müller. „The cough syrup administered by the pharmacist showed immediate effect. After this memorable experience I decided to become a pharmacist myself.“
In May 2016 Axel Müller, a trained pharmacist and internationally experienced pharma manager, took over as managing director of Intergenerika, the Swiss Generics & Biosimilars Association. With a top management career of more than 3 decades in Big Pharma but also Generic companies, Axel Müller knows the pharma business inside out. He belongs to the few managers who by right can claim themselves to have experienced the generics industry in all its facets along the entire value chain. „Most of my professional life has seen me interacting with the generics industry, from the API level, to the development of generic drugs, to the marketing of such products.“ says the INSEAD and Columbia University Alumni. „Leveraging all my experiences, I am determined to advocate the Generics and Biosimilars market in Switzerland that is still embryonic, with room for further growth and development.“
Like many other countries Switzerland is fighting a permanent increase of healthcare expenditures. Although prices of pharmaceuticals and particularly generics have constantly decreased in Switzerland over the last years and medicines are demonstrably not the cost drivers Swiss government is currently evaluating a switch to a so called reference pricing system. „In the interest of the patients we are opposing this system in which we would be forced to either constantly switch to the cheapest medicine or pay the difference“ says „Mr. Generics“.
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An alliance of the leading stakeholders of the Swiss healthcare system comprising physicians, pharmacists and patient organisations, called into life and led by Dr. Axel Müller is taking a cohesive approach against this reference price system. „Pharmaceuticals and particularly generics are the wrong scapegoats – they are not too expensive. Investigations and experience from other European countries show that a reference price system causes a long-term increase of health care costs. A further increase of pressure on margins will inevitably harm the generics industry in Switzerland with only a few players and result in a worsening of already worrying supply shortages of vital medicines.“
Axel Müller can count on the support of the majority of the Swiss population. According to a representative survey 75% of all Swiss are against a reference price system and not prepared to give up their free choice of medicine.
„A reference price systems would definitely be the wrong approach for patients as well as the industry“ says Mr. Generics. „Instead of further pursuing the high risk of price dumping all parties should make a concerted effort to expand the saving contributions of generics and biosimilars of annually 1 billion Swiss Francs.“
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