science

Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation

Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation rather than just read about it. In short: The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (in Dutch Stichting Farma Ter Verantwoording) was established in Amsterdam in July 2018 to deal with pharmaceutical companies that demand excessive prices for medicines in the Netherlands. This followed a report by the Raad voor de Volksgezondheid en Zorg in 2017.

Key takeaways

Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (in Dutch Stichting Farma Ter Verantwoording) was established in Amsterdam in July 2018 to deal with pharmaceutical companies that demand excessive prices for medicines in the Netherlands. This followed a report by the Raad voor de Volksgezondheid en Zorg in 2017. Wilbert Bannenberg, an epidemiologist, is the chairman. The group plans to deploy both health and pharmaceutical expertise and lawyers. They have investigated 12 cases all with the same business model, which they describe as: "buy an old, cheap product, get the old versions off the market, win orphan drug designation, and put up the price as high as you can." They say that European orphan drug legislation needs to be reformed. It plans to make a referral to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets in respect of the pricing policy of Leadiant Biosciences Ltd, formerly known as Sigma-Tau Rare Disease, for chenodeoxycholic acid which is used to treat about 60 children with cerebrotendineous xanthomatosis in the Netherlands. The company now sells this medicine at €140 per capsule, about €153,300 per patient per year. Previously it was sold under the name Chenofalk for the treatment of gallstones at a cost of €0.28 per capsule and used off label for the treatment of cerebrotendineous xanthomatosis. Sigma-Tau acquired the rights in 2008. The European Medicines Agency approved chenodeoxycholic acid for the treatment of cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis. Leadiant, having secured orphan drug designation, and bought up rival suppliers, raised the price, as they were entitled to ten years market exclusivity in the European Union. Bannenberg claims that Leadiant is abusing its dominant market position. The VU University Medical Center are proposing to manufacture their own version at cost price, and this has been supported by Dutch health insurers. Leadiant has been compared to Martin Shkreli. Bannanberg is quoted as saying “This may be legal but it’s not socially acceptable.” The foundation's complaints have been echoed by Bruno Bruins, Minister for Medical Care. The track record of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets and previously of the Netherlands Competition Authority in the medicines sector has been described as poor. Under political pressure, the pharmaceutical companies in the Netherlands have been working on a code of conduct which they say will provide guarantees for responsible pricing, and keep speculators out of the door. In April 2020, Bannenberg said that the Netherlands' vulnerability to medicine shortages had been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands because the country was too dependent on medicines from low-wage countries and vaccines from big pharma. The Netherlands was not a priority for supply. He wanted to see more local production and different manufacturers, even if this meant that generic drugs would be more expensive.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation

In research: Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Organisations based in Amsterdam, Orphan drugs, Pharmaceutical industry, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation in simple terms?

Why does Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation.