Novartis chairman warns against “healthcare nationalism”

Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive of Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, has warned against an increasing trend of “healthcare nationalism”.

Dr Vasella told the Financial Times that the tendency for governments to take measures to protect their countries’ own pharmaceutical companies at the expense of foreign ones must be avoided.

Novartis had suggested it had been the victim of economic nationalism in 2004, when the two French companies Aventis and Sanofi-Synthelabo merged to become Sanofi-Aventis. Novartis had been in discussions to buy Aventis but did not enter a bid, citing the “strong intervention of the French government”.

Dr Vasella stated: “We are seeing healthcare nationalism coming back. From Japan to the US, it’s all over the place.”

He criticised the recent Polish decision to enforce price cuts on foreign proprietary medicines. The Financial Times quotes Poland’s deputy health minister, Boleslaw Piech, as saying that his country is “not covering up that we want to defend our own pharmaceutical industry”.

“Now the left has the moral advantage and everyone criticises globalisation. I hope we don’t go back to a factory in every country,” Dr Vasella concluded.

In March, Tony Blair told the EU that economic protectionism must be avoided if European economies are to prosper.

“There is a big debate on economic patriotism, a healthy debate which is being won by those who favour more open markets,” he said.

© Adfero Ltd