Nothing magical about medicine prices
Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/02/2020
10:30 CET - 12:30 CET
Location
Lange Vijverberg
Categories
In recent years, Health Action International’s (HAI) ‘Our Medicines, Our Right’ campaign has added a civil society voice to the animated discussion taking place in the Netherlands about the high prices of new and patented medicines and pointed to factors that enable excessive pricing. Among these are secrecy around the true costs of biomedical research and development (R&D); failure to acknowledge the contribution of publicly funded research to the early development of newly marketed medicines; and the lack of transparency in pricing decisions and procurement schemes. HAI has therefore produced a set of recommendations for the Dutch government to improve access to affordable medicines in the Netherlands.
In order to bring more attention to the issue and our recommendations, HAI has teamed up with Magician and Mind Hacker, Marc Woods, to take the message of secrecy and high medicine prices directly to the Dutch public. On a busy spot—and with the Tweede Kamer as a backdrop—he will involve passers-by in magic tricks that illustrate how a lack of transparency can lead to high prices. Alongside the magic visuals, there will be an opportunity to speak to a HAI expert on the situation in the Netherlands.