Dutch drugmakers call for end of insurer "cartel"

The Dutch pharmaceutical industry association, Nefarma, has called on the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) to intervene against what  the research-based drugmakers claim is an insurance cartel. Michel  Dutree, the Nefarma's director general, writing in the Financieele  Dagblad, described the government's attempt to allow market forces to  operate as hampered by the emergence of four major insurance groups,  along with a number of "brave" smaller firms.

The health insurance majors, Dr Dutree argues, face no effective  competition in the health care procurement market, including in their  negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. "Such actions have the smell  of a buying cartel," he claims, also alleging a suspicious degree of  standardization in the coverage offered to specific prescribable drugs.  In conclusion, he calls upon the NMa to provide a "counterbalance" to  the competition-destroying effects of the government's attempt at  deregulation.