Can Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies Make a Difference in Promoting Equitable Access to Affordable Medicines? From Diagnosis to Sustainable Impact

The 2015 Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) Conference presented major challenges in achieving equitable access to affordable medicines not just in low- and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. This included innovative medicines such as sofosbuvir, used to treat Hepatitis C, whose planned market entry hit public payers of high-income countries unprepared. As further new medicines with high prices were expected to come to the market in the future, the “sofosbuvir case” can be seen as a kind of “wake-up” call.

A journal article in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice by Veronika J. Wirtz and co-authors examines the 2015 PPRI Conference as well as pharmaceutical pricing and policies in the following years.

The authors determine debates, policy papers, scientific advancement, cross-country best practices learnings and exchange experiences are all important to improving pricing and reimbursement policies in Europe and other regions. The article calls for wise and transparent policy-making, robust and multi-disciplinary science, critical assessment of existing policies and tools as well as in-depth discussions. The 2019 PPRI Conference makes a significant contribution to providing a platform for these activities that are critical to promote equitable access to affordable medicines.