E-DRUG: Netherlands: Chamber supports fund for affordable medicines
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Substantial savings due to lower maximum drug prices in the Netherlands
News item 19-12-2019 | 16:00 // https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2019/12/19/forse-aving-by-lower-maximum prices-medicines
From April 2020 there will be lower maximum prices for medicines. As a result, in many cases, pharmaceutical companies have to lower their prices. On an annual basis this leads to an estimated saving of 300 million euros (the Netherlands have about 18 million inhabitants). This corresponds to more than 4% of the total annual expenditure on medicines (7 billion euros). The lower maximum prices are the result of an amendment to the (Dutch) Medicines Prices Act (Wgp).
A maximum price applies to medicines in the Netherlands. This price has been determined since 1996 on the basis of the average price in Germany, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Germany has high drug prices, well above the EU average. Minister Bruno Bruins (Medical care) has therefore decided to delete Germany as an analogue country. Norway is just added to the list. From April 2020 there will then be, on average, lower maximum prices for medicines. This legislative amendment, which received broad support in both the Lower House and the Upper House in the past year, will take effect from 18 December 2019. The measure mainly has an effect on the price of medicines that are still patented.
The Netherlands: Chamber supports fund for affordable medicines
12-12-2019 // https://www.pw.nl/nieuws/2019/kamer-stemt-voor-plan-betaalbare-medicijnen
Place medicines developed with tax money on the market for an affordable price. With a plan for a national fund, which was adopted in the Lower House(in the Netherlands) this week, the SP and the CDA want to break the power of the pharmaceutical industry (SP = leftist party and CDA = centralist party). The independent National Fund for Affordable Medicines is intended for non-commercial academic research, development and registration of medicines, including phase II and phase III research.
According to these two political parties CDA and SP, market forces and negotiations between Minister Bruno Bruins of Health with manufacturers still do not lead to socially acceptable lower prices. The dependence of the pharmaceutical industry on the development of medicines is also a problem, because the universities often have no money for research and the registration of a medicine, according to the two parties. SP and CDA want to force the pharmaceutical industry to reserve 5% of their marketing budget - Euro 1.3 billion - for the fund. The Euro 50 million that this generates annually can be used for independent scientific research into new medicines.
There is such a fund in Italy, to which the industry is also obliged to contribute from the marketing budget.
Lucas F.M. van der Hoeven
The Netherlands / Europe
lucas@cbsm.nl