The Dutch District Court of The Hague has issued a historic and ground breaking judgement in the case of health insurance company Menzis against the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. Menzis is set to be rewarded compensatory damages due to the unjust enrichment of AstraZeneca and their role in the lack of price competition for their medicine Seroquel XR.
Wilbert Bannenberg, chairman of the Dutch Farmaceutical Accountability Foundation says: “This is a very important verdict of the court. It has never happened before that a health insurance company has sued a pharmaceutical company and won. Pharmaceuticals often try to elongate the monopoly in order to maintain the high pricing of their medicines. We congratulate MENZIS on this groundbreaking verdict.”