About 85% of new medicines launched between 2012 and 2021 were available in the U.S., compared to 61% in Germany, 59% in the U.K. and 52% in France and Italy. Bluebird bio in 2021 said it was unwinding operations in Europe and withdrawing gene therapies for rare diseases, citing the challenges of “achieving appropriate value recognition and market access.”
According to a European Public Health Alliance survey in 2019, nearly half of patients reported that they or a family member couldn’t get a drug they needed. In France, 2,446 drug shortages were reported in 2020, up from 868 in 2018 and 44 in 2008. Two in three French oncologists say shortages of anti-cancer medicines can reduce survival odds.
This is from the editors of the WSJ.