Report From WHO Fair Pricing Meeting Shows Balanced Discussion

A wide range of governments and stakeholders attended a closed meeting in the Netherlands in May to address the ongoing problem of pricing medicines to pay for research and the resulting lack of affordability of those medicines. The report from the World Health Organization-led meeting shows a range of points were made by participants and signals a move to change the global policy.

The Fair Pricing Forum took place on 11 May in Amsterdam and was closed to the press (IPW, WHO, 12 May 2017).

The report is available here.

“The multi-stakeholder discussion was seen as a first step towards identifying an actionable agenda towards fair pricing, and reiterated the message that by “fair” pricing, WHO does not mean “low” pricing,” the report states. “Fair pricing means pricing that allows for a reasonable return on investment in exchange for an affordable price, which is to say one that does not bankrupt health systems and other payers.”

“It is with such ‘sustainable pricing’ that the growth of the pharmaceutical sector will be supported and universal access to essential medicines and other health technologies will be ensured,” it states.

Governments need to be enabled to play a stronger role in negotiating prices and where appropriate, incentivising needs-based R&D,” it added. “More cooperative approaches would be helpful, for example with governments sharing information on pricing, and gaining greater leverage when negotiating prices.”

The report describes discussion over the need for more transparency in pricing, and concerns about the “value-based” pricing structure and over-reliance on intellectual property rights.

“The need for greater transparency was a recognised as a recurring theme,” the report said. “More transparency on pricing is needed from all stakeholders: from public research entities, defining how much public money is spent on discovery research; from companies, on how much they spend on clinical trials and other development activities, and how much on production costs; and from countries, on how much each one pays for a medicine.

And the forum found there is a need for further discussion in order to solve the price and access issue and develop an action plan to be implemented. The report states at points the possibility for greater leadership by the WHO