11 December 2018 - With Ireland being the latest to join in June 2018, there is clearly interest in the initiative that goes beyond the founding countries.

The idea is simple: buying together can help countries secure the best deal.

Apply that to the fragmented and diverse landscape of drug pricing and reimbursement in Europe and the reality becomes a lot more complicated. But there are some European countries that are doing just that. The BeNeLuxA initiative Set up in 2015, the BeNeLuxA initiative aims to deliver sustainable access to innovative therapies. Starting first with the Ministers of Health of Belgium and the Netherlands, the initiative now includes Luxembourg, Austria and last, but by no means least, Ireland, which joined in June 2018. The publicly available Terms of Reference show how the initiative approaches the work. The group works together in a variety of ways, from horizon scanning and information sharing to cooperating on Health Technology Assessment and joint negotiations on price. Initial reactions from industry were said to have been dismissive, as getting more than one country to agree to a deal at the same time as another was seen as a difficult goal.

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