Recommendations for EU drug pricing policy from Medicines Law & Policy

The new Medicines Law & Policy series of briefing documents,  European Union Review of Pharmaceutical Incentives: Suggestions for Change, aims to contribute to the discussion on high medicines prices, in particular those that result from market exclusivity.

The EU is currently undertaking a review of its pharmaceutical incentive mechanisms, which are meant to stimulate innovation by rewarding innovators with temporary monopolies over their innovations. In announcing the review, the European Council “noted with concern an increasing number of examples of market failure in a number of member states, where patients access to effective and affordable essential medicines is endangered by very high and unsustainable price levels.”

The market exclusivities in the EU – granted through the patent system and the medicines regulatory system – are stacked atop each other, never rolled back and are adopted based on assumptions, rather than data that provide evidence for their need.