Due to the rising prices of expensive medicines, access to medicines is increasingly becoming a problem, even in high-income countries like the Netherlands. This trend undermines the financial sustainability of the health system and hence compromises the right to health and equal opportunities for leading a healthy life.
Within this programme, we analyse the functioning of the system of medicines development, identify flaws in the system, and propose relevant (policy) changes, so that everyone, everywhere has access to high-quality, affordable medicines that meet their medical needs.
We push for Dutch and European policy makers to take a critical stance on medicine prices, transparency and public return on public investments. It is our intention that more EU Member States will support Dutch efforts to address the increasing prices of expensive medicines and look for policy options to counter this trend.
On the global level, we aim for the World Health Organization to fulfil its leading role in addressing the challenge of high drug prices worldwide, for example by proposing fair pricing models and by addressing the issue with Member States in a framework.
Thanks to our strong track record on access to medicines, we can rely on strong networks and good working relationships with various policy makers and politicians, both at Dutch and EU-level.
The fact that pharmaceutical companies can charge extremely high prices is due to the way in which medicines are developed and medicine prices are determined. This is done within a complex system of (inter)national and EU regulations in which major commercial interests play a role. Moreover, it is a system with many stakeholders (including government, health insurers, universities, hospitals, patient associations) with divergent and sometimes conflicting interests. The right to health is vulnerable in that system.
This infographic illustrates the system of medicines development. It also shows the current problems we identify and the (policy) changes we envision to get to a fair situation that guarantees equal access to fairly priced medicines, reimbursed by insurance. (Click the image to enlarge)
Wemos has a track record of many years focusing on ethical clinical trials in low- and middle-income countries, and is one of the few organizations within the EU working on this topic on a policy level. One of our recent lobby successes is that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is required to submit annual reports to the European Parliament detailing its efforts to ensure that medicines intended for the European market are tested ethically. In 2017 we published a report on unethical clinical trials in Africa.
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Today the court ruled that the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has to refund the excessive price the company charged for the drug Seroquel to the health insurance company Menzis. The exact amount has yet to be determined. It is the first time that a health insurance company in the Netherlands has sued a pharmaceutical company.
