Roche puts future German investments 'on hold'

FRANKFURT, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Roche is reviewing all future investments in Germany over healthcare cost-cutting policies, the company's Germany chief said in an interview with newspaper Welt published on Monday.

"We have put all future investment decisions in Germany on hold for the time being," said Daniel Steiners, head of Roche Germany, adding that for the pharmaceutical industry, policymakers had "recently destroyed a lot of trust."

• "Corporate decisions against Germany as a business location are regrettable and show that our country and the European Union must take these challenges very seriously," a spokesperson for Germany's Federal Ministry of Health said

• The ministry will advocate for stable and attractive framework conditions for the pharmaceutical industry in Germany and Europe including in negotiations at European level, according to the spokesperson

• Steiners said that instead of tackling the structural problems of the statutory health insurance system, policymakers are focusing on short-term savings and placing additional burdens on the industry

• A proposed location clause, designed to ease the burden on pharmaceutical companies engaged in research and production with regard to manufacturer discounts, could only partially offset the negative effects of the legislation. Needed is a comprehensive strategy, he added. The government said it was reviewing proposals on the location clause and that the outcome of the review could not yet be prejudged

• Following proposed legislation in Germany to cap rapidly growing costs in the statutory health ​insurance system, Eli Lilly had in June already said it would halve its planned €2.3 billion ($2.57 billion) investments in the country

• Planned investments like the more than €600 million expansion of the site in Penzberg, Bavaria, are not impacted by the reviews, a company spokesperson told Reuters

($1 = 0.8934 euros)

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Marleen Kaesebier; Editing by Mark Porter)