Pfizer CEO warns German investment at risk over drug pricing policies

By Maggie Fick, Bhanvi Satija and Patricia Weiss

LONDON/FRANKFURT, June 10 (Reuters) - Pfizer is reviewing the timing and scope of planned investments in Germany, CEO Albert Bourla said in a letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the latest drugmaker to react to government policy proposals that would lower drug prices.

Pfizer's letter, dated June 9 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, was first reported by German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

Bourla wrote that the proposals call into question the predictability required for the pharmaceutical industry's long-term investment decisions.

"As a result, we are reviewing our external engagements as well as the timing, scope and future prioritization of certain planned investments in Germany," the letter read, without specifying what investments it was referring to.

Pfizer declined to comment further on the letter.

PLANNED HEALTHCARE COST CUTS

The letter comes a week after ⁠U.S.-based Eli Lilly said it would halve its $2.3 billion ​investment in Germany, and German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim scrapped ​its €900 million plans, both citing the government's planned healthcare cost-cutting measures.

The proposed legislation in Germany to cap ⁠rapidly ​growing costs in ​the statutory health insurance system has thrust the country into the centre of a broader tussle between drugmakers and European governments that began several months ago.

That tension stems from the impact on Europe of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “most-favored-nation” pricing push, which aims to tie some medicine prices in the lucrative U.S. market to ​lower prices elsewhere, including in Europe.

Pfizer and Lilly are among the 17 major drugmakers that have secured agreements with the White House to bring U.S. prescription drug prices in line with those paid in other developed nations in exchange for tariff exemptions.

Many large pharmaceutical firms, including AstraZeneca and Roche, have recently warned that they may be unable to launch their future innovative medicines in Europe unless governments agree to pay more than they historically have.

Governments are holding firm.

In a letter to Chancellor Merz dated April 22, Bourla and more than 30 other CEOs of major pharmaceutical firms requested an "urgent face-to-face or virtual meeting" with Merz "in the coming days".

There was no response, several industry sources said.

The German government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Maggie Fick and Bhanvi Satija in London, and Patricia Weiss in Frankfurt. Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin. Editing by Mark Potter and David Holmes)