A critical look at pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies and the sharing of experiences
A variety of pricing and reimbursement policies is used in health care systems to ensure the access to essential medicines for all patients. These policies aim at allocating the resources in health care systems in an equitable way and are sometimes used to contain costs in the treatment of patients. In practice many forms of pricing and reimbursement policies exist (e.g. external price referencing, reference price systems etc.). The recent financial crisis puts an extra burden on already strained resources in health care systems; a fact which leads to an increased demand for an efficient and rational use of medicines. Pharmaceutical policies satisfy the potential conflicting demands of balancing the needs for access to medicines and containing costs. At this conference selected existing pharmaceutical policies are subjected to scrutiny if they fulfill the expectations in health and economic terms.
The conference specifically looks at “burning” questions in pricing and reimbursement policies of medicines – from a global and European perspective and in the light of the current financial crisis. Tools for promoting the rational use of medicines with a special focus on the interface between the primary and the hospital sector will be presented and discussed by renowned international experts (e.g. WHO, OECD, European Commission).
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies in Vienna invites you to discuss pharmaceutical policies and their practical implementation in the light of current challenges with high ranking experts and representatives in the pharmaceutical field.
Objectives
The conference aims at the scientific analysis and discussion of specific aspects of pricing and reimbursement policies and exchanging experiences and information of best-practice models. The dialogue of all stakeholders in the pharmaceutical field should be facilitated.
Who attended the conference?
- Regulatory authorities in the field of pricing and reimbursement of medicines (policy makers, administration)
- Payers in the health care system (e.g. sickness funds, ministries, medicines agencies, private health insurance institutions)
- Stakeholders in the health care system (e.g. physicians, pharmacists) and relevant interest representations
- Researchers, academics
- Pharmaceutical companies
- Editors, journalists
- Patient and consumer associations