Belgian pharma trade group takes issue with press reports on drug costs; market set to shrink as patents laps

The Belgian pharmaceutical trade group pharma.be has issued a strong rebuttal of an article published last week in the local newspaper Le Soir, saying that drug spending by the country's Health Insurance Agency, the INAMI, of 3.2 billion euros ($4.37 billion) increased 12.5% in 2008 compared to 2007 and volume (4.2 billion in 2008) had seen a rise of 6%. Le Soir thus concludes that the average cost per unit of medicine has increased significantly, it points out.

Moreover, notes the pharma.be, Plavix (clopidogrel, a leading blood thinning drug from France's Sanofi-Aventis) is presented as the main cause of the strong growth of consumption in the blood and hematopoietic group of medicines. The article also specifies that the generalized cover of the "small" risks for independent shad a very limited impact on the growth of expenditures. It also mentions the weak share of generic drugs, which account for 9.6% of expenditure.

Figures incorrect