Germany’s Healthcare Reforms Herald More Pain for Big Pharma

Donald Trump’s push to bring down drug prices in the US has rattled the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Now, they’re confronting a new menace as Germany seeks to plug a ballooning deficit in its public health-insurance funds.

Europe’s biggest economy splurges more than half a trillion euros ($587 billion) a year on healthcare, making it the most expensive system on the continent by some distance. If nothing is done to rein in spending, the government projects the shortfall will swell to €40 billion by 2030 at a time when public finances are already stretched.