A critical outlook on pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies
A variety of pricing and reimbursement policies are used in different health care systems to ensure access to essential medicines for all patients. These policies aim at allocating the available resources in an equitable as well as efficient manner, balancing the often conflicting needs of access to medicines and containing costs. In practice many forms of pricing and reimbursement policies are used (e.g. external price referencing, reference price systems etc). The recent financial crisis has put an extra burden on already strained resources in health care systems, a fact which has led to many policy reforms as well as initiatives for efficient and rational use of medicines. Current developments, for instance regarding new high-cost medicines, bring further challenges and pressure for change, however also constitute large opportunities for health care systems.
The conference aimed to bring together thought leaders from around the globe to discuss ‘burning’ issues in pricing and reimbursement policies of pharmaceuticals – both from a global as well as European perspective. Current challenges and opportunities were discussed, in particular also policy coordination and interface management issues. Further, the impacts and lessons learned from policies implemented in response to the financial crisis were debated.
The WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies in Vienna invited participants to take part in the discussions with renowned experts and high-level representatives in the pharmaceutical field.
Objectives
The conference aimed to present on-the-frontier academic analysis as well as foster discussion of challenges in pricing and reimbursement policies. 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
Conference programme and downloads
- Conference Programme
- Members of the Scientific Programme Committee
- Presentations
- Abstract poster book (20,5 MB)
- Country poster book (13,3 MB)
- Abstracts from the 3rd International PPRI Conference 2015 - Supplement to the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice - available at https://joppp.biomedcentral.com/articles/supplements/volume-8-supplement-1
Download as pdf. - Gallery