The need for clarity on Swedish pricing and reimbursement has put new medicine launches on hold
Pharmaceutical companies are freezing new drug launches in Sweden as uncertainty over the Trump administration’s “Most Favoured Nation” pricing policy forces multinationals to demand fresh justification from their Nordic affiliates before proceeding, according to a new analysis by Sweden’s dental and pharmaceutical benefits agency, TLV.
The agency interviewed the Swedish affiliates of ten major pharmaceutical multinationals and found that while none had withdrawn existing drugs from the market, most had postponed new launches as headquarters sought additional information on Swedish pricing and reimbursement conditions.
“The issue of significant differences in drug prices between the EU and the US is nothing new,” said Anna Strömgren, a medical investigator at TLV, speaking at a webinar on the policy’s impact. “However, the industry has recently experienced increased pressure and uncertainty.” She added that company representatives had reported a growing need for “positive political signals” from Swedish authorities before proceeding with launches.
The interviews were conducted as part of the agency’s government-assigned task to monitor geopolitical events that could influence medicine pricing in Sweden. Apparently, the TLV had expected to find out more about how the MFN policy works from the industry. However, the interviews did not provide much information about how MFN actually operates, as Martin Löwing Jensen, the project leader for TLV’s assignment, noted.
