German Drug Price Rules Should End, Sanofi’s Spek Tells Paper

Germany should end mandatory rebates and price limits on drugs now that its insurers are profitable, Hanspeter Spek, president of global operations at Sanofi (SAN), said in an interview with the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel today.

The French drugmaker aims to derive 40 percent of sales from emerging markets by 2017, Spek told the newspaper. Revenue from emerging economies was more than 10 billion euros ($12.7 billion) in 2011 and should grow about 10 percent annually over the next five years, he said in the interview. The biggest sales growth potential is in China, followed by Russia, Brazil and Mexico, he was cited as saying.

The Paris-based company has 2 billion euros to 3 billion euros to spend on acquisitions and wants to expand in diabetes and animal medicine, Spek told the newspaper.

To contact the reporter on this story: Allison Connolly in Frankfurt at aconnolly4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net.