Top German drugs regulator loses his job

Jan 22, 2010, 14:26 GMT

Berlin - Germany's top drugs regulator, Peter T Sawicki, whose campaigning for cheaper medicines pleased the public but angered big pharmaceuticals companies, lost his job Friday.

Sawicki told the German Press Agency dpa that the board of the Institute for Quality and Economic Efficiency in Health IQWiG had decided not to renew his contract. He has been accused of ordering two corporate cars without written clearance.

'I finish August 31,' he said. 'I would have liked to continue.'

Health-insurance chiefs had this week called for Sawicki, seen as an aggressive regulator, to be kept, but were out-voted on the board, where doctors, drugmakers and the government are also represented.

The institute analyses whether expensive drugs have any medical benefit. A ruling that a new, patented drug is no better than a traditional cheaper remedy means that that insured patients cannot claim the high-priced drug on their public health insurance.

As in other nations, German regulators have struggled to restrain runaway healthcare costs blamed on high-priced medicines.

Stefan Kapferer, a state secretary in Germany's Health Ministry, said Sawicki's departure did not mean the institute would become less robust. 'There won't be any relaxation of the review guidelines,' he said.

Sawicki was accused of leasing two corporate cars, one for his own use, without a clearance in advance. He denies wrongdoing.