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| Health insurers are making money out of expensive drugs |
Dutch health insurance companies are investing millions
of euros in pharmaceutical companies which charge extremely high prices for
their drugs, the Volkskrant reported on Wednesday.
The total investment may
only be a fraction of their total invested assets of €15bn, but it does mean
there is a conflict of interest with their main function – keeping healthcare
costs as low as possible – the paper said.
Last year, for example, CZ invested
€1.6m in Biogen, Vertex and Gilead, three firms which have been criticised for
their high prices and refusing to justify the cost. Menzis had €1.2m in Biogen
while Zilveren Kruis invested in Biogen and Gilead, the paper said.
Biogen,
which booked profit of €3.7bn last year, makes a drug to combat the muscle
disease SMA, which costs hundreds of thousands of euros a year per patient, the
paper said.
VGZ also had investments in the controversial companies but
recently sold its shares following criticism from the Dutch healthcare
institute.
The institute, which makes recommendations to the government about
what the basic health insurance package should include, said last month that
insurance companies were acting unethically.
‘You cannot sell this [to the
public],’ Utrecht University professor Toine Pieters told the paper. ‘It is
painful and perverse. Health insurers are supposed to use their money to make
sure medicine is available to all at as low a price as possible.’
A spokesman
for Menzis told the paper that having an investment in the company allowed it
to exercise pressure on policy. In addition, a healthy return on its investment
helped keep premium prices low.
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