The head of pharma company GlaxoSmithKline has warned European governments against taking “easy options” to save money now at the expense of the long term health of his sector.

Both Spain and Greece have tried to force down drug prices in an attempt to alleviate some of their financial woes. Speaking to journalists at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations conference in London, Andrew Witty, CEO of Glaxo and president of the federation, warned against assuming such actions would be without consequence to an industry of major importance to European prosperity.

“These are very trying times for governments,” he said. “What I would ask them to be doing is don’t mistake easy for correct. Is it easy to cut medicine prices? Of course it’s easy. Is it the ultimately best choice to take? Maybe it’s not.”

However Witty also said he did not approve of pharma company Novo Nordisk threatening to pull some drugs out of Greece in response to enforced price cuts. Making clear he was not speaking in his EFPIA role, he said, “The role of pharmaceutical companies is to develop great medicines and find ways to make them available to as many people as possible. That kind of action isn’t necessarily helpful to the debate which goes on at the moment.”

Witty insisted that the pharmaceutical industry was now engaged with cost effectiveness and working with governments to set fair prices for drugs.

“Those medicines that ultimately are developed need to be priced at a level where both sides [companies and governments] feel they have got a fair deal. Companies are not going to take 10 or 12 or 15 years of risk unless they feel they get rewarded for innovation,” said Witty.

“… What we need to avoid at all costs is that people don’t take a short sighted view, think they’ve very successfully found an algorithm that always delivers the lowest possible price and all they will discover in 10 years is there are no new drugs being developed.”

Image: Witty / GSK