Bayer HealthCare - Public Policy

Policy-making and legislation have an essential impact on our business. Likewise, our activities have an influence on society and the public sector. We believe that sharing our expertise and communicating our positions contribute responsibly to policy-making and are part of our engagement as corporate citizen.

Our knowledge and expertise is offered to policy-makers and other relevant stakeholders on a wide range of issues affecting our business by engaging in constructive dialogue. We work and cooperate with health policy experts and trade organizations on national and global scale.

The guiding principle we apply to our corporate public affairs activities is transparency. As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency we state our positions on different public policy issues affecting our business.

We are convinced that the societal challenges are best solved jointly by all relevant stakeholders.

Our Positions on Top Political Issues:

Ensure Market Access for Innovative Medicines

In many countries market access to innovative medicines is often delayed or denied because of complex regulatory and reimbursement procedures. In practically all countries with price regulation, new medicines are not launched as long as reimbursement and pricing decisions are pending. There is a global trend that clinical guidelines and Health Technology Assessments (HTA) produced by health authorities or payers are often used as a mechanism to restrict access of patients to innovative medicines.

Position Paper Market Access (PDF, 43KB)

Need for a Sustainable Healthcare System in Germany

In Germany, scarcely one legislative period passes without some striking regulatory change in the healthcare system. The government is confronted with rising costs of maintaining inhabitants’ health due to demographic change and medical progress. Despite major reforms, the overall cost of healthcare in Germany has been outgrowing the funding base for some time and is heavily dependent on the employment market situation. The fundamental challenge of how to finance the healthcare system in the future sustainably remains unsolved. In its present form, the German healthcare system shows basic structural and governance flaws which must be improved.