Pharmaceutical companies must move towards new pricing models based on outcomes for patients if Europe’s cash-strapped health systems are to remain solvent, according to the chief executive of Novartis.

Joe Jimenez warned that companies could no longer expect to be rewarded for medicines that produce weak benefits or only incremental improvement over existing treatments in an era of rising pressure on health budgets.

“What’s coming is not a pretty picture for anybody in the next 10 years and unless we . . . help reduce demand on the health system it is just going to mean more cost containment, more rationing of care and that’s not good for the industry,” he said.

Mr Jimenez was speaking to the Financial Times in his capacity as the newly installed president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the trade group.

For more details, go to: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fff835be-0cf2-11e5-a83a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3cRgzcRx9