While Czech officials support stronger cooperation between EU countries, they insist that governments should retain control over pricing and reimbursement decisions
Prague has warned against allowing the EU’s response to US drug-pricing pressure to encroach on national powers over medicine pricing and reimbursement, while backing closer coordination on drug availability and supply chain resilience.
The debate has intensified following Washington’s push for a ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) approach to pharmaceutical pricing, which seeks to align US medicine prices more closely with those paid in other high-income countries.
European governments fear the policy could alter pharmaceutical companies’ launch strategies, as lower prices negotiated in Europe could influence revenues in the far more lucrative US market.
Several EU countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Austria, under the Beneluxa Initiative, have called for a more coordinated response, including more “unified European approach to pricing and reimbursement of new treatments”.
