Country Correspondent: Margje Haverkamp
National spending on high-cost drugs in the Netherlands increased 9 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to the Dutch National Care Authority. The spike reflected the introduction of a wider variety of high-cost drugs on the market, as well as growth in the number of patients who use these drugs. The rise in spending occurred despite Minister of Health Care Bruno Bruins’ often repeated intentions to limit the power of the pharmaceutical industry and to reduce barriers to pharmaceutical compounding, whereby pharmacists can create their own versions of expensive drugs in a laboratory setting.