German Industry Wants To Simplify 'Complicated' Switch Process

24 May 2019

The German Medicines Manufacturers´ Association, the BAH, is calling for the country's prescription-to-OTC reclassification procedure to be simplified by removing from the process the country's Ministry of Health and Bundesrat, and empowering the medicines agency, BfArM, to make the final decision based on recommendations from the Expert Advisory Committee for Prescription.

Munich, Germany skyline at City Hall. — Munich's Neue Rathaus Features A Glockenspiel In The Tower Balcony • Source: Shutterstock

Germany’s procedure for switching medicines from prescription-only to OTC status is “too complicated, non-transparent and unpredictable” and should be “modernized,” according to the German Medicines Manufacturers´ Association, the BAH.

At its third annual switch conference in Berlin earlier this week, the BAH’s scientific director Elmar Kroth presented a “legal...