Roche is in talks with the US government to cut out the pharmaceutical industry’s intermediaries and sell medicines directly to patients, as drugmakers try to see off the threat of dramatic price cuts under President Donald Trump’s proposed reforms.
Thomas Schinecker, Roche’s chief executive, said half of all the earnings in the supply chain went to intermediaries, known as pharmacy benefit managers, who take “zero risk” on innovation.
“So if the United States would like to cut prices by 50 per cent, it’s very easy. We go direct. And this is one of the discussions that we’re having with the United States, and that would bring down costs quite quickly,” he said.