DutchNews, November 10,
2017
The Dutch government should take
unorthodox measures if pharmaceutical firms are not prepared to ask a ‘socially
acceptable price for their products in negotiations’, according to the government-backed
Council for Health and Society.
The council, which looks at the relationship
between the public health sector and society, said in a new report that if
pharmaceutical firms don’t cut their prices, ‘the authorities will have to make
use of the options that national and international regulations offer for making
the medicine available for patients.’
These include allowing individual
pharmacies to make the drugs themselves, allowing patients to order medicines
themselves via the internet on a doctor’s prescription and giving other firms
licences to produce the drugs.
Enforcing socially acceptable pricing will, the
council says, encourage the commercial sector to develop medicines better,
faster and more cheaply. They will also be forced take more account of failures
in the development of new medicines.
‘The high prices are partially the
consequence of an inefficient development process. The costs of failures are
set off against the price of the medication that does reach the market,’ said
chairwoman Pauline Meurs.
Limited powers
‘Another factor is the market power of
the pharmaceutical companies and the limited counterweight provided by
government, hospitals and health insurers.’
Health technology professor Carin
Uyl-de Groot told the Volkskrant on Friday that she backs the idea of awarding
licences to other drugs firms. ‘I think that the patient’s right to healthcare
is more important than the pharmaceutical company’s patent rights,’ she said.
Last month, former health minister Edith Schippers refused to include the drug Orkambi in the basic healthcare package after failing to reach a deal on price with its maker Vertex. The drug costs some €170,000 per patient per year.
Last month, former health minister Edith Schippers refused to include the drug Orkambi in the basic healthcare package after failing to reach a deal on price with its maker Vertex. The drug costs some €170,000 per patient per year.
However, Schippers said several days later
she had managed to strike a deal with
Vertex – the details of which remain confidential – and the drug has been
included in the basic package from November 1.
Related Article: