TODAY: CCC's Managing Director @FredCyrusRoeder testifies at 10 AM in Washington, DC, before the @USTradeRep on Section 301 Investigations into German trade practices around pharmaceuticals. Full statement below in advance of his remarks.

WASHINGTON DC — On Tuesday, September 22, Frederik Roeder, Managing Director of the Consumer Choice Center (CCC), will testify before the U.S. government’s inter-agency Section 301 Committee as it examines Germany’s pricing policies for innovative pharmaceutical products. The public hearing begins at 10:00 a.m. at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched its Section 301 investigation in June to examine whether German pharmaceutical pricing practices are unreasonable or discriminatory, thus burdening U.S. commerce. Roeder, a German health economist, will argue that the consequences of Germany’s pricing policies extend well beyond its national healthcare budget. "Governments cannot suppress the price of medical innovation indefinitely and expect innovation to continue as before,” Roeder said in advance of his testimony. “When governments push reimbursement lower, there are consequences: patients can wait longer for new treatments, promising research becomes harder to finance, and investment moves elsewhere. American patients should not be expected to serve as the financial backstop for pharmaceutical innovation around the world.” In his prepared testimony, Roeder points to Germany’s mandatory discounts, reimbursement policies, and proposed rebates for patented medicines as policies that could weaken incentives for pharmaceutical research and investment. He will also warn that the interaction between European price controls and the United States' Most-Favored-Nation drug-pricing policies could push manufacturers to delay launches in lower-price markets. "The better outcome is reform: value-based reimbursement, predictable rules, lower mandatory rebates, and agreements that reward medicines for the value they deliver to patients. Germany and the United States both have an interest in keeping their markets attractive for the next generation of cures," said Roeder. Roeder will urge USTR to use the Section 301 investigation to pursue reforms that protect patient access while strengthening incentives for medical innovation, pointing to the recent U.S.–UK pharmaceutical pricing arrangement as a potential model. The Section 301 Committee hearing will take place on September 22 at the U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, D.C., beginning at 10:00 a.m.

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