17 June 2016 - The EU wants patients to have access to essential medicines.

The Council notes with concern an increasing number of examples of market failure in a number of Member States, where patients access to effective and affordable essential medicines is endangered by very high and unsustainable price levels, market withdrawal of products that are out-of-patent, or when new products are not introduced to national markets for business economic strategies and that individual governments have sometimes limited influence in such circumstances

The Council the increasing trend of marketing authorisation of new medicinal products for small indications, including, in some cases, the authorisation of a single product for 'segmented' patient groups within a disease area and the authorisation of one substance for several rare diseases and in this respect notes with concern that companies may seek very high prices while the added value of some of these products is not always clear.

For more details, go to: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/06/17-epsco-conclusions-balance-pharmaceutical-system/