German regulators and industry are busy arguing over what percentage of drugs are determined to have a benefit under the country's new pricing law, but what is really important is whether patients are actually getting innovative drugs, and how regulators and companies go about modifying the system as it continues to evolve.

On Sept. 3, Josef Hecken, chairman of the German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), said criticisms of the AMNOG process are "unfounded" based on an interim analysis of the system's drug benefit assessments. He said the results of assessments carried out under AMNOG are comparable to those from other benefit assessment programs, arguing that G-BA has found at least some degree of additional benefit for 64% of drugs assessed to date (see BioCentury, July 16).