药品定价和报销政策能否在促进公平获得可负担药品方面发挥作用？ From Diagnosis to Sustainable Impact

The 2015 Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information (PPRI) Conference presented major challenges in achieving equitable access to affordable medicines not just in low- and middle-income countries but also in high-income countries. This included innovative medicines such as sofosbuvir, used to treat Hepatitis C, whose planned market entry hit public payers of high-income countries unprepared. As further new medicines with high prices were expected to come to the market in the future, the “sofosbuvir case” can be seen as a kind of “wake-up” call.

A journal article in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice by Veronika J. Wirtz and co-authors examines the 2015 PPRI Conference as well as pharmaceutical pricing and policies in the following years.

The authors determine debates, policy papers, scientific advancement, cross-country best practices learnings and exchange experiences are all important to improving pricing and reimbursement policies in Europe and other regions. The article calls for wise and transparent policy-making, robust and multi-disciplinary science, critical assessment of existing policies and tools as well as in-depth discussions. The 2019 PPRI Conference makes a significant contribution to providing a platform for these activities that are critical to promote equitable access to affordable medicines.