Access to medicines has long been considered a developing country issue of vaccines and basic
medicines. But the rise in chronic diseases and expensive life-saving treatments is bringing the
access debate to rich countries worried about the burden on healthcare budgets.
This has become more important as Countries face the huge challenge of rare diseases and expensive treatments for diseases like cancer.
For example, in Switzerland, the cost of medicine per person has increased by 13% in just three yearsto CHF814 in 2017. The costs are largely driven by oncology and expensive combination therapies,
explained the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) at a press conference earlier this month in May2019.
The FOPH estimates that nearly half of the 90 or so requests for approval last year were for
treatments exceeding CHF100,000 ($99,097) per person per year.
Ahead of the World Health Assembly in Geneva, towards end May 2019, an Italian draft resolution to end secrecy around drug pricing has already ruffled feathers
among some governments and industry players.
The resolution proposed by Italy’s Minister of Health Giulia Grillo in February, 2019 urges the World Health Organization (WHO) and governments to boost transparency in four areas: drug prices, R&D costs, clinical trial data, and patent information.
Supporters of the resolution argue that transparency is essential to determine a fair price for
medicines and ultimately make them more affordable. A recent OECD report on the industry
reinforced this, stating that, “R&D costs and pricing structures are often opaque, raising legitimate
questions about the value offered by some increasingly costly new treatments.”
While transparency has been discussed in global health circles for years, Swiss Global Health
Ambassador Nora Kronig said that
seeing transparency as a way to improve access
to medicines is a new development.
WHO's definition of a fair drug price:
A ‘fair’ price is one that is affordable for health systems and patients and that at the same time
provides sufficient market incentive for industry to invest in innovation and the production of
medicines.
Is there such a thing as a fair price?
What is a fair price for drugs has become the question shadowing the discussions on transparency.
Companies have typically defended high prices by pointing to much needed investments in research
and development. But more research from the WHO, Switzerland and elsewhere shows that prices aredisconnected from costs and that drug company profits continue to rise.
Companies like Novartis and Roche have even said that costs are not the best way to determine prices
With new gene therapy treatments that cure diseases with a single treatment, they are calling for a
shift to a value-based model based on patient outcomes and savings to hospitals and health systems rather than cost base.
Basically value-based pricing is a strategy of the pharmaceutical industry to avoid unveiling their real investment cost as alleged by some quarters.
/23-05-2019
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