We are paying way too much for medication. A counterweight must be created for big pharma in order to curb healthcare costs. Erasmus MC Chairman Ernst Kuipers knows just the way to fight this.
With €1.3 billion in annual revenue and 13,000 employees, Erasmus MC is the largest hospital in the Netherlands. Which also means it pays sky-high prices for medication: in 2016 the bill was more than €150 million.
'Drug manufacturers set a price and we just accept it,' says Professor Ernst Kuipers. 'We can hardly judge if expensive resources, for example long-term research, are really needed. Pharmacists must make a profit out of it, that's business. But why do we accept profit margins of 30% to 40%?'
In order to fix this problem, Kuipers thinks we would have to look for a large European partnership and refuse to pay for certain costs. We have to make a fist against big pharma!
Want to hear more about Kuipers' ideas? Check out his interview with Studio Erasmus!
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Source: De Telegraaf