[Giovanni Maria Riccio] Abstract: The present study is focused on article 11 and article 13 of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market. The study underlines the inefficiency, from both a legal and economic perspective, of the measures held by the EU Commission, considering the purposes of these interventions.
[Ellen 't Hoen] Today, the Dutch Medical Journal (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde) reported on the case of lutetium-octreotaat, a cancer drug developed by researchers in the Dutch Erasmus medical centre in Rotterdam. For the last 18 years, the hospital pharmacy made the medicine to treat their patients, keeping prices relatively low. But now the drug is being marketed by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, and its price has skyrocketed to Euro 23,000 an infusion from an original price of Euro 4,000 an infusion. This takes the price of a complete treatment of 4 infusions to nearly Euro 100,000, a price point at which health insurers no longer wish to reimburse its use.