[New medicines at an acceptable cost?]

The Dutch minister of Health, Welfare and Sport recently informed the Dutch Parliament that the current system of access to new medicines has failed because it is becoming too costly. She plans to tackle the pricing-problem within the current system by e.g. putting restrictions on patenting and market-protection of new medicines. In order to reform the system and to achieve rational pharmacotherapy, the government should do more. For example, the government could set up its own biotechnology companies, reject non-inferiority studies, and stop the rapid market access for new medicines when sound clinical evidence is lacking. Patients should be protected because they have the right, including during end-of-life care, to receive medicines that have been thoroughly evaluated.