As news hit last week that Eli Lilly and Boehringer Ingelheim are cutting investments in Germany, Roche said it will not be following suit—for now.
The Swiss major announced several years ago a 600 million euro ($692.88 million) investment for its new diagnostic production site in Penzberg, Germany, with construction set to be completed next year.
Roche told Fierce Medtech it would not be pulling that investment after fellow drugmakers Lilly and Boehringer recently said they would be swinging the ax on money they had pledged for sites in Germany.
“We can confirm that there are no changes to our previously announced investments in the diagnostic production site in Penzberg,” a spokesperson said.
Just last week, Lilly said it would slice its planned investment of 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in half, while Germany-based Boehringer is cutting its domestic spending by 900 million euros ($1 billion).
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The cuts came in response to a new German government healthcare initiative aimed at lowering public healthcare costs by billions of euros, in part by triggering deeper discounts on branded medicines.
But Roche still has its gripes. The company told Fierce that the decision on the so-called GKV Contribution Stabilization Act “introduces a new level of uncertainty regarding future investment, research, and manufacturing decisions in Germany.”
The spokesperson added that, “as a result, we will need to carefully assess future investment opportunities in Germany in light of the evolving policy framework.”
That was echoed by Dr. Daniel Steiners, CEO of Roche Pharma AG, who said in a statement to Fierce: “Our industry stands ready to invest billions in research and manufacturing, sustain highly skilled jobs, and bring innovative treatments to patients as quickly as possible.
“In our view, the government is risking significant economic damage while delivering only limited benefits to the long-term sustainability of the health care system.”
The pressure being applied to Germany is similar to that faced last year by the U.K., as Lilly and other companies, including Merck, Sanofi and AstraZeneca, reduced their presence or planned outlays in the country, citing an unwelcoming business environment for biopharma.
Earlier this year, the U.K. made an industry-friendly deal with the U.S., which will free it from tariffs on pharmaceutical products exported to America in exchange for the U.K. adjusting the thresholds under which it assesses the value of new drugs.
