By Ellen ‘t Hoen, Medicines Law & Policy
Today, the Dutch Medical Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde) reported on the case of lutetium-octreotaat, a cancer drug developed by researchers in the Dutch Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam. For the last 18 years, the hospital pharmacy made the medicine to treat their patients, keeping prices relatively low. But now the drug is being marketed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, and its price has skyrocketed to Euro 23,000 an infusion from an original price of Euro 4,000 an infusion. This takes the price of a complete treatment of 4 infusions to nearly Euro 100,000, a price point at which health insurers no longer wish to reimburse its use. How was is possible that a medicine developed by Dutch physicians in an academic setting got in the hands of a Swiss pharmaceutical company that is now using its market exclusivity in the EU to defend its monopoly price?
Research journalist Lucien Hordijk looked into these questions for the Dutch Medical Journal. This blog is based on his article [in Dutch]. The answer revolves around the EU regulation on “orphan drugs” – originally designed to encourage the development of treatments for rare diseases – that is being abused to drive up prices. And the privatisation of publicly funded research without sufficient safeguards for affordability.
Read the full original article on the Medicines Law & Policy blog here.
Image Credits: Medicines Law & Policy