Belgium
Belgium: Minister of Economy imposes maximum price for orphan drug
25 September 2019 - Posted by: Claire Caillol
On 6 September 2019, the Minister of Economy announced in a communication that a maximum price for Leadiant Biosciences’ orphan drug, CDCA, which is used to treat the rare neurological disease, cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX), had been imposed. In Belgium, a drug manufacturer must file a request with the Ministry of Economy to fix the price › Read More
Belgian Constitutional Court suspends sales restriction for wholesale distributors of medicines
02 September 2019 - Posted by: Kaat Van Delm
On 18 July 2019, the Belgian Constitutional Court suspended Article 3.2 of the legislation applicable to shortages of medicines in Belgium, after receiving multiple applications for both suspension and annulment of the Article. The Article obliged Belgian wholesale distributors to only supply their medicines for human use to other Belgian wholesale distributors, licensed pharmacies or › Read More
Excessive pricing practices in the pharmaceutical sector – NCAs’ scrutiny continues
02 August 2019 - Posted by: Nele De Backer
Last week, the Belgian and Italian consumer associations Test Aankoop/Test Achats and Altroconsumo filed complaints with their respective national competition authorities, alleging that the pharmaceutical group Biogen is abusing its dominant position by charging excessively high prices for the medicine Spinraza, which it has the exclusive right to market as an orphan drug until 2029. › Read More
20 July 2019 - Posted by: Tine Carmeliet
From 1 July 2019, laboratory tests that predict whether a patient could therapeutically benefit from “personalised” medical treatment will be reimbursed quickly via a new procedure. In the context of personalised medicine, patients are tested before the start of a treatment and are only given a particular medicine when it has been demonstrated that they › Read More
Belgium: New developments point at possibly imminent changes in (online) pharmacy market
02 July 2019 - Posted by: Tine Carmeliet
In Belgium, two recent events have drawn attention to the (online) pharmacy market. First, on 28 May 2019, the Competition Court of the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) imposed a fine of EUR 1 million on the Belgian Order of Pharmacists for the use of anti-competitive practices aimed at excluding the MediCare-Market group, an association of (para)-pharmacies › Read More