AbbVie Participates in USTR’s Section 301 Investigation into Germany to Address Global Imbalances in How Transformative Medicines are Valued
North Chicago, Ill., Sept. 22, 2026 – On behalf of AbbVie, Perry Siatis, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, testified in front of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on how Germany’s pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies harm future innovation and health outcomes, threaten U.S. commerce, and place an unfair share of the costs of innovation on the U.S. healthcare ecosystem.
“Around the world, governments have an opportunity to create conditions that encourage investments to improve patient outcomes, support robust economies and build healthier societies. Germany's policies are moving in the opposite direction,” said Siatis. “While the systematic undervaluation of innovation may reduce costs in the short term, it risks weakening the investment needed to deliver the next generation of medicines and the health gains they make possible.”
Why Germany’s pricing policies negatively impact future innovation
The German government plays a central role in setting and negotiating the prices manufacturers receive for innovative medicines, through an increasingly complex system of price controls, mandatory rebates, reimbursement restrictions and cost-containment measures. Recently implemented German policy reforms increased mandatory manufacturer rebates from 7% to 15.5% and introduced additional volume-based penalties, creating a cumulative effect that can reduce the value of an innovative medicine by nearly 54%.
If innovation is systematically undervalued, the investment needed to develop future medicine and treatments will become harder to sustain. These policies extend beyond today’s medicines and treatments, threatening future research and development, manufacturing and clinical trials.
How undervaluing innovation puts pressure on American commerce
When one country contributes less toward funding innovation, those costs are distributed to other patients and healthcare systems. For years, America has shouldered a disproportionate share of the investment required to support pharmaceutical innovation worldwide.
As one of the world’s wealthiest economies, Germany’s policies are exacerbating this imbalance by contributing less while still benefiting from the medical breakthroughs innovation creates. Germany’s pricing and reimbursement decisions influence policymakers globally; if unchecked and unchanged, other countries will pursue similar pricing approaches that are detrimental to American companies and patients worldwide.
By engaging in the USTR 301 investigation process, AbbVie hopes to find a constructive path forward that is based on fairness, facts, and a global agreement that wealthy countries should invest more equitably in protecting the health of patients worldwide.
