Per generics boss Peter Schmidt dismissed

Pro Generika CEO Peter Schmidt was dismissed with immediate effect.

(12.06.2010) As the generics association announced, the managing director Peter Schmidt was dismissed with immediate effect. Peter Schmidt had announced shortly before the dismissal in the "Handelsblatt", Pro generics will accept the proposed discount contracts. One would have abandoned the resistance to the discount agreements.

With the immediate dismissal of Schmidt now contradicted the association of this representation of Schmidt. Until the appointment of a new managing director, the director of the pharmaceutical company "Stada", Anne Demberg, will take over the provisional management of the Pro Generika-Verband. Demberg was previously deputy head of the association until 2009. The board of directors had publicly stated that it was "explicitly contrary to the published presentation, according to which pro generic has changed its attitude to discount contracts and drug tenders of health insurance." A changed strategy of pro generics does not exist. Pro Generika e.V. is a Pharmalobby Association of a total of 17 generics manufacturers in Germany.

One stick to the attitude, "that drug tenders are not suitable to sustainably strengthen the competition in the generics market and to guarantee the health system in the long run savings," argued the association's board. It would rather work to ensure that the legislator does not pursue the way to enforce drug tenders.

The grand coalition had introduced discount agreements to help cut costs. In these discount agreements, a health insurance company concludes a contract with a pharmaceutical manufacturer and commits itself to reimburse the insured only the costs of the drugs of that manufacturer. In return, the health insurance receives a discount on the drugs from the phramafirma. The association "Pro Generika" had always spoken out against such discount agreements.

At the beginning of May this year, the now former head of the association caused a scandal. The former editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine "Titanic", Martin Sonneborn, had interviewed the association's managing director for the comedy magazine "heute-show". Schmidt was lured by Sonneborn with it, the interview would be conducted for ZDF. One would like to use the interview "if possible" in the "today" newscast or in the "today journal". In the course of the interview Sonneborn pointed out that Schmidt should not use some formulations. However, those statements that were not intended for the public, but were broadcast in the satire broadcast and then caused for rebellion. Sonneborn also suggested that he wanted to help the head of the association to present a positive image of the pharmaceutical lobby.

Peter Schmidt has been active since the founding of the lobby association for "Pro Generika" and was appointed Managing Director in 2008. Previously, Schmidt was a speaker of the working group on health and social protection of the SPD in the Bundestag. A personal statement by Peter Schmidt is currently not available. (Sb)

Excursus: What does generic medicine mean? Generics are medicines that have the same active ingredient as medicines that have been made by major pharmaceutical companies. Generic medicine is therefore an identical drug copy of an existing drug. Generic drugs are usually cheaper than the drugs that have been produced under a brand name.