Belgium to speed up access to innovative medicines
From January, Belgian patients will gain quicker access to promising new medicines. Treatments that show strong results in clinical trials will be reimbursed by health insurance even before receiving formal approval from the European Medicines Agency.
Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke of Vooruit, talking to newspaper De Tijd, said the change was designed to help patients with serious conditions who currently wait months or even years due to lengthy price negotiations between pharmaceutical companies and the government. “Anyone who is ill should get the best care as quickly as possible,” he said.
Under the new procedure, therapies will be reimbursed temporarily while talks on pricing continue. The government has set aside 25 million euros for the first phase.
"Anyone who is ill should get the best care as quickly as possible"
The announcement comes just days after Vandenbroucke defended 80 million euros in savings imposed on the pharmaceutical sector through a general price cut on medicines.
He argued the measure was necessary to contain exploding healthcare costs, though he insisted the industry could still avoid such cuts by coming forward with “credible and creative” proposals.
© BELGA PHOTO HERWIG VERGULT
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