The 10th Supplementary Agreement on the adaptation of Annex 3 of the Auxiliary Tax on the pricing of parenteral preparations came into force on 1 March 2020 after the German Pharmacists‘ Association (DAV) and the German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance (GKV) were unable to reach an agreement for a long time and an arbitration ruling in January 2018 on regulations that were untenable for pharmacists caused the situation to escalate. According to this ruling, new discounts have been in effect since 1 March, which concerns active ingredients for parenteral preparations and finished pharmaceuticals. The following adjustments were agreed upon, described here in brief: For active ingredients or finished drugs that are new on the market or became generic drugs on February 1, 2018, retroactive discounts of between 0 and 83.7 percent will also apply, depending on the active ingredient. Discount levels of 1 to 30 percent apply to patented active ingredients or finished drugs as well as finished drugs for which there is no equivalent drug from another manufacturer. The auxiliary tax lists all discount levels for all active ingredients or finished medicinal products. Since 1 March of this year, the auxiliary tax has been applicable when new active ingredients or finished medicinal products come onto the market or become generic: If one of the parties to the contract does not comply with the deduction within two months, the arbitration board will decide on the amount of the deduction within one month of the application. According to this decision, discounts then apply retroactively until the date of the market launch of the active ingredient of the drug, but only up to a maximum of 16 months with retroactive effect. The labour price for the production can also be terminated separately; this is regulated by new possibilities for termination; the period expired six weeks before the end of the quarter. All periods of notice are also regulated in Annex 3 Part 2, Item 9.
