EFPIA Expresses View regarding International Governmental Cooperation on Pricing of and Access to Medicines
- 22/01/2019
- Articles
Nathalie Moll, the Director General of the pharmaceutical industry’s European association EFPIA, has mounted a rather blunt attack against efforts by a range of EU Member States to colloborate on medicine pricing and access. In a note posted recently on EFPIA’s website (https://www.efpia.eu/news-events/the-efpia-view/blog-articles/policy-principles-on-cross-country-collaborations-on-medicines-pricing-and-access/), Ms. Moll wrote that there has been constant “noise” regarding governmental cross-country collaboration on access to medicines, but that the results amounted to “[n]ot so much”. In Ms. Moll’s view, governmental cooperation across borders should yield broader access to medicines for patients. Otherwise, such cooperation is “energy wasted”.
While it is true that the start of cross-country collaboration on medicine pricing and access has been much slower in reality than the impression created by official statements, it is probably premature to judge a budding and complex structure for cooperation.
That realisation must have prompted EFPIA to come up with a set of proposed constructive guiding principles for successful cooperation (see attached). According to EFPIA, these principles should inform government action in the now established areas of cooperation in organisations such as Beneluxa, namely (i) horizon scanning; (ii) Health Technology Assessment; (iii) information sharing; and (iv) joint pricing negotiations. Additionally, EFPIA also mentions public procurement. In EFPIA’s view, cross-country collaboration on these matters should result in:
- a broader and/or accelerated access to medicines for patients;
- no additional market barriers, price controls or other forms of duplication;
- a consistent approach by countries with similar economic and health-related requirements;
- voluntary participation by industry; and
- guaranteed confidentiality of sensitive information, including pricing and reimbursement arrangements.