Big Pharma in the EU : Dutch healthcare institute "Zorginstituut Nederland" says drugs companies are effectively blackmailing officials by refusing to be transparent about their prices

The Dutch healthcare institute "Zorginstituut Nederland" said recently insurers should stop paying for expensive drugs if pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to say how they arrive at their pricing.

The institute, which assesses the efficacy of new drugs and advises the government on whether they should be included in the basic healthcare policy, says the drugs companies are effectively blackmailing officials by refusing to be transparent about their prices.

Last years June announcement that Ireland is joining the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy might suggest renewed vigour for the drive to equip national governments with more clout in their pricing negotiations with international drug firms.

The likelihood is that better-informed health authorities will be better equipped to confront drug firms. Similarly, drug firms will be obliged to present more cogent justifications for their pricing ambitions/

 As has been proven in the US, Pharmaceutical companies. also known there as "Big Pharma, can not be left operating with little or no strict Governmental controls.

In the US this has led to a steady rise in the cost of pharmaceutical products for  consumers.

 It is more than obvious the Pharmaceutical industry must be closely monitored in two major areas: a) Their pricing structures and practices, and b) Providing far more transparency in their marketing and sales activities, specifically as it relates to the insurance and medical industry.

In Europe the initiatives of the Beneluxa Initiative on Pharmaceutical Policy certainly are a step in the right direction, but unfortunately Government support and action has been extremely slow, while the Pharmaceutical lobby in the EU Parliament, however, like it has been in the US Congress and Senate, has been vigorous and very effective.

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EU to Keep Part of TTIP Trade Deal Papers with US Under Wraps says Commissioner Malmstroem

Transparency in question

The European Commission does not plan unveiling all documents on the EU-US "free trade deal", Europe's top trade official said in an op-ed published inFrench newspaper Le Monde on Friday April 15.

The publication in Le Monde comes less than two weeks before the 13th round of EU-US talks on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) kicks off in New York on April 25.

"Certain documents must stay confidential, either those related to tactical comments directly referencing Europe’s negotiating stance or those citing US documents, which are not for us to publish," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said in the article.

The TTIP deal, which aims to deregulate trade US-EU trade, has been criticized for lack of transparency, prompting the Commission to publish some of the TTIP documents.

Malmstroem stressed that TTIP documents in question would be made available to national parliaments of EU member states, offering a degree of openness that had not been there before. Parliaments will also be the last to decide on the trade pact once the Commission is done negotiating it, she added.

European lawmakers have laid down a set of principles they want to be observed during the ongoing talks, including greater transparency, inviolability of social and environmental standards, and respect of EU’s red lines, she continued.

Last year, the secretive deal sparked widespread concern that it would lower environmental, health, safety, and workers’ rights standards in Europe, as well as enable the extra-judicial settlement of disputes in circumvention of national sovereignty.

Read more: EU to Keep Part of TTIP Trade Deal Papers Under Wraps – Trade Commissioner

The Netherlands: Dutch should go for real transparency in corporate ownership - by Arjan Al-Fassed and Anne Scheltema Beduin

In the Netherlands it’s still possible to create legal companies without revealing the identity of the actual owner, Criminals abuse such constructions for purposes of corruption, fraud, money laundering, organised crime and cartels. A public registry, the so-called UBO registry, aims to change all that. But it can only happen if the registry is accessible to all.

A UBO registry is a central registry which contains the names of the ultimate beneficiaries and other legal corporate entities. A ‘UBO’ or Ultimate Beneficial Owner, is the person who is pulling the strings, openly or behind the scenes. Openness about the identity of the UBO strengthens confidence, increases accountability and gives the market, stakeholders, investors, businesses and consumers a proper insight into who exactly they are dealing with. Corruption, money laundering and the financing of terrorism are international problems and that is why, before June 26 2017, all EU countries have to have a registry in place.

Recently, finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem presented an outline of the Dutch version of the UBO registry. Although Dijsselbloem is an advocate of a registry, his version is far from offering real transparency. Not only does the government want to erect a paywall, it also wants to know who wants the information: every visitor needs to log in. Moreover, the general public’s access to the registry is limited to a minimal data set.

Shadowy constructions The data from a UBO registry are only properly useful if access is unlimited and equal for all. Obscuring information about companies, foundations, associations and organisations is part of the problem.

The minister’s obstructions are also flying in the face of what the registry is meant to achieve; i.e. putting a stop to the creation of shadowy constructions used for illegal purposes. In order to do that, the complete data set needs to be accessible. In Myanmar, for instance, a criminal chain made up of military elites, drug barons and money laundering organisations related to the jade industry was discovered. This was only possible because the complete data set was publicly accessible, machine readable and programmatically compatible. Public watch dogs, among them Global Witness, were thus able to reveal the hidden ties between the jade industry and the most important players.

A pay-per-view system is problematic because it impedes the use of the complete data. If you have a list of administrators who have been convicted for money laundering and you want to combine it with the Dutch UBO registry to check if any of the people appearing on the list is on the board if a Dutch company, the costs of your research will mount considerably. The finance minister is silent on the subject of open data in its UBO registry proposal. He is hiding behind the privacy argument, which is a questionable one since it is at odds with transparency. The minister does admit that a strict access limitation would be difficult to achieve and monitor and would be expensive – both for the administrators and the users of the registry – and not in line with the purposes of the Directive.

Read more: Dutch should go for real transparency in corporate ownership - DutchNews.nl

The EU and TTIP: Secret document reveals EU offer to drop 97 percent of tariffs - Justus von Daniels and Marta Orosz

We now know that the TTIP negotiations entered a decisive phase on October 15, 2015. That’s when US and EU representatives laid their cards on the table, exchanging offers to cut taxes on imports from each other. Up until then, the US had only broached hypothetical reductions; now they were openly offering to remove 87.5 percent of tariffs completely.

That was more than the EU expected. European negotiators had to agree a better offer, or risk derailing the deal. A week later, they did came up with a new proposal: reductions in 97 percent of tariff categories.

The EU’s secret offer, which CORRECTIV has seen in its entirety, is made up of 181 pages of densely-printed text and can be found here. It’s got almost 8,000 categories: Every species of fish, every chemical has its own tariff category. Importing a parka? Wool, or polyester?

Trade deals are like poker games. Europe’s big offer comes with a big hope: That the US will open up its public bidding process to European firms. That way, European construction companies could bid on contracts to build US highways, or BMW could sell cop cars to American sheriffs.

For the first time, the tariff offer makes clear what TTIP might do for consumers: remove duties, and prices tend to drop. With tariffs on parts gone, cars could get cheaper. Per part, tariffs add just a few cents on the euro, but altogether European car manufacturers could save a billion Euros each year, according to German Association of the Automotive Industry calculations. Manufacturers could then pass the savings on to consumers.

The EU is now waiting for the US to offer a substantial deal on public procurement. In a September 15 report obtained by CORRECTIV, the European Commission says “it definitely expects that the US will offer to open public procurement at a future point in time, in exchange for the revised tariff offer.”

That report also indicated that the US “promised to make a proposal regarding public procurement for the first time” when the EU and US put forth their symmetrical tariff reductions, eliminating 97 percent of all tariffs.
Public bids are a major TTIP sticking point. The EU wants the US to finally open its markets to allow firms like Balfour Beattie or BMW to compete when cities put out a call for bids on a new building or fleet of cars. The US is less than eager, because that would subject domestic companies – which are already allowed to bid on projects in the EU – to increased competition.

Four days before the next negotiation round starts, the European Commission has now indicated that they don’t expect a comprehensive offer. Sources said that the US haven’t sent their proposal yet and that public procurement will be discussed right after the official negotiation round. The 12th round of negotiations started this Monday in Brussels.

Read more: TTIP: Secret document reveals EU offer to drop 97 percent of tariffs | openDemocracy