There are currently more than 15,000 medicines in development, of which more than 1,000 are gene or cell therapies.
Since 2001, the EMA has approved more than 150 orphan drugscovering more than 90 rare diseases.
It costs 2.2 billion euros on average to develop and test a new drug and bring it to the market.
If the government places a new drug in the ‘lock’ system for pricing negotiations, it takes an average of 345 days before the patient has access to it.
Medicines comprise 7%of the total healthcare budget.
The Dutch spend little on medicines: 376 euros per year. The average in high-income countries is 604 euros.
The price of a new medicine can already decrease after a few years, by roughly 2% per year. Approximately 10 years after registration, the patent expires and prices can drop by an average of 85%.
The total sales of medicines has been fairly stable already for years, but sales in hospitals continues to comprise an increasing proportion of that total: now 47%.
Those who adopt a healthy lifestyle timely, reduce the risk of dementia by 30%.
In 1950, a total of 184 Dutch people died of whooping cough, tetanus and polio. Thanks to vaccines, in 2017, that number was just three.
