By Epa Drugmakers on defense against Belgian-Dutch pricing bid Drugmakers want to be able to charge different prices to different countries.

The European drug industry is heading for a clash with Dutch and Belgian health authorities over their plans for joint negotiation of drug prices.

Companies will highlight 'key messages' for fighting back against possible price cuts, including warnings to consumers that the countries’ effort may limit patient access to new medicines, according to an internal industry document seen by POLITICO. Industry worries that exchange of pricing information charged to individual countries would eat into their revenues if it were to spread more widely.

Health ministers Edith Schippers of the Netherlands and Maggie De Block of Belgium announced their new scheme last week at the informal meeting of European health ministers in Riga. Until now, negotiations on prices for new medicines have taken place almost exclusively between the company and an individual country. The Dutch-Belgian effort is among the first where countries are acting together for a better deal.

Drug companies are frequently accused of profiting by charging as much as possible in each country, and smaller countries have often complained of being disadvantaged in negotiations. They are opposed to general information-sharing when the intention is to lower prices.

"Evidence on the clinical value of innovative medicines can be shared across borders," says the industry's briefing note. But it is much more guarded about the sharing of information about economic value. In the case of Belgium and the Netherlands, "some alignment could be sought on pricing and reimbursement," because the two countries have similar economic conditions. But, continues the briefing note, "this would not be the case with other member states."

The industry fears that unrestricted exchange of information among national authorities about pricing deals will erode the companies’ power in negotiations — which currently benefit from commercial confidentiality.

That is part of the point of the Belgian-Netherlands effort.

“If we work together, we represent more patients and we can more easily negotiate a lower price without sacrificing quality,” the ministers said in a statement.

At present, a company typically agrees a lower — but publicly undisclosed — price for a product in less wealthy countries, while seeking a higher price in wealthier countries.

Pharmaceutical companies want to keep it that way. "Each company should have the flexibility to establish different prices for the same medicine in different countries and to vary those prices as conditions change," the document says.