[Marco van Herwaarden]

In the Netherlands we have a system where a central organisation (gov.) creates a list of all possible medication and the maximum reasonable (market) price. Often there is more then 1 choice of medication: High priced brands, and often also cheaper alternatives. The list will only list the max. price for unbranded (if available) and insurances may only pay up to the listprice.

This does effectively break the entire marketing machine of these producers where they will "bribe" doctors etc to subscribe their own (expensive) version of the medicine. Prices (both unbranded and big brand names) have dropped a lot. Customer (patient) will always have the choice to take the generic (cheap medicine) or pay the difference themself.