How Europe’s vaccine donations went tragically wrong
May 23, 2022
Covid vaccine equity remains out of reach, as wealthy nations drag their feet on donations, and vaccine stocks pass their use-by dates. Though Brussels was
Lucien Hordijk
Lucien Hordijk (1988) has been covering the pharmaceutical industry for six years, reporting on skyrocketing prices, regulatory capture, generic shortages, biosimilars and industry lobbying. His investigations led to national publications and international coverage in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
Publications:
Now that the patent has expired, this cancer drug is suddenly 99% cheaper
March 24, 2022
The patent on the cancer drug Revlimid (lenalidomide) recently expired. Whereas a few weeks ago a pack still cost over 4,500 euros, after generic competition
Amsterdam Medical Center creates ‘hijacked’ medicine
September 13, 2021
Using a set of legal tricks, the pharmaceutical industry was able to turn an animal gallic acid into a medicine that costs tons of money
The outrageous pricing model used by Big Pharma
April 17, 2021
Pharmaceutical firm Novartis charges €2 million for a single intravenous infusion — but the National Health Care Institute in the Netherlands declared in April that
Brussels pressured drug regulator to approve Pfizer vaccine
January 22, 2021
Leaked documents show that the European Commission put pressure on the European Medicines Agency to approve the first Covid-19 vaccines simultaneously with the American FDA.
Covid-19: EU countries spent over €220m stockpiling remdesivir despite lack of effectiveness
December 9, 2020
The drug’s manufacturer was aware of the negative results of the Solidarity trial before the European Commission struck a procurement deal with it, finds an
‘As long as it is for free’
August 19, 2020
Most of the demand for (refresher) training courses for doctors in the Netherlands is fulfilled by industry- sponsored programmes. Even after decades of controversy over
From blockbuster to nichebuster
July 29, 2020
Two decades of EU market protection of ‘orphan’ (rare disease) medicines have greatly benefitted the industry. According to research by The Investigative Desk, published in
Evergreening the world’s most profitable medicine
April 7, 2020
Even after the expiration of Humira’s patent protection, pharmaceutical company AbbVie almost completely fended off biosimilar competition for this blockbuster medicine in the Netherlands. ‘Their behaviour defies any description.’
Evergreening the world’s most profitable medicine
March 27, 2019
Even after the expiration of Humira’s patent protection, AbbVie, the pharmaceutical company, almost completely fended off biosimilar competition for this blockbuster medicine in the Netherlands.
