Pharmaceutical policies in a crisis? Challenges and solutions identified at the PPRI Conference

Sabine Vogler; Nina Zimmermann; Alessandra Ferrario; Veronika J Wirtz; Kees de Joncheere; Hanne Bak Pedersen; Guillaume Dedet; Valérie Paris; Aukje K Mantel-Teeuwisse; Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar; Scientific Programme Committee of the 2015 PPRI Conference

doi:10.1186/s40545-016-0056-8

Pharmaceutical policies in a crisis? Challenges and solutions identified at the PPRI Conference

J Pharm Policy Pract. 2016 Mar 15:9:9. doi: 10.1186/s40545-016-0056-8. eCollection 2016.

Affiliations

¹ WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies, Health Economics Department, Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (Austrian Public Health Institute), Vienna, 1010 Austria.
² LSE Health and Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, WC2A 2AE UK.
³ Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02118 USA.
⁴ Essential Medicines and Health Products Department (EMP), World Health Organization (WHO), 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
⁵ World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, 2100 Denmark.
⁶ Health Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Paris, 75116 France.
⁷ WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS), Utrecht University, Utrecht, 3508 TB The Netherlands.
⁸ School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Mail Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract

In October 2015, the third international Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) Conference was held in Vienna to foster discussion on challenges in pricing and reimbursement policies for medicines. The research presented highlighted that commonly used pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies are not sufficiently effective to address current challenges. Conference participants called for fundamental reforms to ensure access to medicines, particularly to new and potentially more effective and/or safe medicines, while safeguarding the financial sustainability of health systems and working towards universal health coverage.

Keywords: Biosimilars; Challenges; Cooperation; Debate; Europe; High-cost medicines; Medicine prices; Pricing; Reimbursement.