Belgium's drug policy saves more than Dutch

Belgium's drug reimbursement authorities have achieved greater savings, over 370.0 million euros ($474.3 million) versus about 290.0 million  euros anticipated for their Netherlands counterpart (KIWI), according to  the Belgian drugmakers' representative body, the pharma.be. The Belgian  figure is based on the amount raised by a levy on drugmakers' turnover,  combined with payments from the pharmaceutical sector to cover budget  deficits in the drugs' bill, which are received by the National  Institute for Sickness-Disability (INAMI).

The pharma.be also released data using a pharmacy price index for 2008,  which  revealed variations among neighboring countries. Taking Belgian  prices as base 100 for the 110 most commonly-prescribed medicines, the  equivalent indices were: 115.2 in the Netherlands; 105.2 in France;  147.9 in Germany (despite a "jumbo" reference-pricing scheme); and 116.5  (at August 2007 exchange rates) in the UK.