The N-VA achieves a great step forward: secret pharmaceutical deals will become more transparent

The bill for more transparency about secret pharmaceutical deals is getting the green light from the Council of State. The N-VA is one of the entities that submitted the bill. “We are not opposed to secret deals and we realise that a certain amount of discretion is necessary, but in one way or another we do need to have oversight in the matter,” the N-VA said in October about pharmaceutical deals .

Keeping expensive drugs affordable

The N-VA submitted the bill together with sp.a after it became clear that as much as 30% (or nearly) of the drugs budget is covered by a secret contract. Minister of Public Health Maggie De Block (Open Vld) has in recent years increasingly found refuge in secret deals with the pharmaceutical companies, albeit with the best intentions, to get expensive drugs to the patient affordably.

Secret deals being talked about

The secret deals were talked about last year. For example, Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security does not reimburse Avastin, a cheap medicine to treat age-related blindness, while it does reimburse the much more expensive variant Lucentis. According to the N-VA, the situation is unjustifiably costing social security a heap of money.

According to the cabinet of Maggie De Block, there was no question of an additional expense as a large discount was obtained in secret negotiations. The only problem here is that nobody could verify that claim by Maggie De Block. With a bill from the N-VA and sp.a, this would be possible.

Important breakthrough

The approval for the bill by the Council of State is an important breakthrough in the dossier of the secret contracts. It is the last substantive hurdle that the Parliament had to clear in order to get the green light for more transparency about the repayment of expensive, new drugs. The rule will only apply to contracts that are concluded in future and not for the current contracts.