ZURICH, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Deals between pharmaceutical companies and Washington to reduce prices for medicines in the United States will likely push up the cost of new drugs in Switzerland, the CEO of Swiss pharma giant Roche was quoted as saying on Saturday. Under the deals announced on Friday, drugmakers including Roche's U.S. unit Genentech will slash prices on drugs sold to the U.S. Medicaid program for low-income people. The White House said the accords meant other countries could no longer use price controls to take advantage of U.S. innovation, and in an interview with Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker said Washington's aim was for other wealthy nations to contribute more to innovation. Schinecker said the U.S. would look at the economic strength of other countries in determining where prices should be. If a country's gross domestic product per capita is above that of the United States, Washington would expect the price of medicines to be higher in line with greater prosperity, he said. This would not initially impact Switzerland, because drugs already available would not become more expensive, Schinecker said. But future prices would follow this system, he added. "For Switzerland, this would mean more; for Italy, less than in the U.S. All economies would make a relatively comparable contribution to investments needed for developing new therapies. Prices won't change overnight, but I'd expect it to happen gradually with each new launch over the coming years," he said. Swiss politicians have raised concerns about the prospect of medicine prices rising, but the pharmaceutical industry is a major driver of exports, employment and tax revenues. If Switzerland resisted putting up prices for new medicines, there could be knock-on effects, Schinecker noted. "Unfortunately, this would likely lead to further delays in introducing new medicines," he said. Denmark, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada and Switzerland are being used as reference points for U.S. drug pricing and Schinecker said Roche was in discussions with these countries. He also said he expected the pricing issue to feature in talks between Bern and Washington to formalise an agreement struck in November to lower U.S. tariffs on Switzerland. According to World Bank data, Swiss GDP per capita is higher than that of the United States when measured in both current U.S. dollar terms and the Purchasing Power Parity method. (Reporting by Dave Graham)
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