PPRI Africa
GÖG to support public authorities in Africa to strengthen pricing and reimbursement policies
Many African countries currently have pharmaceutical reimbursement and pricing policies in place and/or are working on establishing such policies. However, given the variation in implementation of such policies among the countries, exchange on how policies to best adapt pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies to a specific country context is essential.
The PPRI Africa network aims to allow public authorities working on pricing and reimbursement of pharmaceuticals to learn about policies and to benchmark implemented mechanisms. This helps to improve their targeted implementation in the respective country and regional contexts and to better manage the impact of pharmaceutical prices on the public and private budgets. Thus, the project will contribute to strengthen coverage (reimbursement) policies of national health insurance schemes, to improve patient access to essential medicines and ultimately to enhance health outcomes for the populations.
Given the experience through the wider PPRI network of the Pharmacoeconomics Department at the Austrian National Public Health Institute (Gesundheit Österreich GmbH / GÖG), a project was commissioned by ENABEL to GÖG for the setup of an African Network of Authorities working on Pricing and Reimbursement Policies (PPRI Africa). Experts of the Pharmacoeconomics Department, which is a designated WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies, will constitute the PPRI Africa Secretariat and support its inauguration and functioning.
The PPRI Africa network is financed in the form of a pilot project by the Team Europe Initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa (TEI MAV+) running from January 2025 to December 2025.
The PPRI Africa Network includes representatives from public authorities of African countries and Africa CDC.
More information about the network is presented in the project one-pager.
PPRI EECA
A regional PPRI network, the so-called PPRI EECA (Eastern Europe and Central Asia) network, has been established. This network is coordinated by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies at the Pharmacoeconomics Department and the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Members of this network are representatives of public authorities in the field of medicines (particularly related to pricing, procurement and funding) in the Eastern European and Central Asian countries in the WHO European region: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Some members of the PPRI EECA network are also members of the large core PPRI network.
The PPRI EECA (formerly called CIS+) network started in 2017, with a meeting in Chisinau (Moldova) in June 2017. Working language is Russian. PPRI tools have been translated and adapted to the needs of the PPRI EECA network.
Activities and deliverables:
- Annual PPRI EECA network meetings
- Russian glossary
- Country posters on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement systems
- PPRI EECA report ‘Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Systems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia’
- 5 years of PPRI EECA (brochure)
Further information provided by the WHO Regional Office for Europe:
http://www.euro.who.int/en/countries/russian-federation/news/news/2017/07/kick-off-meeting-of-network-on-pharmaceutical-pricing-and-reimbursement-policies-in-the-cis
http://www.euro.who.int/en/countries/republic-of-moldova/news/news/2018/18/strengthening-collaboration-for-affordable-medicines-in-cis-countries
Further regional PPRI networks
The PPRI secretariat has been in contact with further WHO regions (e.g. Africa, Americas, Western Pacific) and presented the model of PPRI, with a view of possibly supporting the establishment of further regional networks. For support of the PPRI secretariat in this field see https://ppri.goeg.at/supporting_networks.