Challenges and opportunities for pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies

Even though access to affordable medicines is a human right, it is not ensured world-wide. The Priority Medicines Report 2013 [1] identified pharmaceutical gaps that continue to remain: diseases of public health importance for which pharmaceutical treatments either do not exist or are inadequate (see also K4). Where adequate treatments were available, access might be limited due to high costs of the medicines that can neither be funded by individuals nor by the communities. Ensuring equitable access to safe and effective medicines is a complex task. To prevent individuals from incurring into financial hardship when accessing health care, including medicines and to reduce the barriers to medicines access, quality of care and increasing equity, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been promoting Universal Health Coverage (UHC). During the last years a number of countries worldwide have been working towards UHC. Still, there is a disproportion in resource allocation for health care, including medicines, between countries at different levels of income. While expenditure is not necessarily a good indicator of better access, it is worth noting that in 2005/2006 (latest data available at international level) for example, 16% of the world’s population living in high-income countries accounted for over 78% of global expenditures on medicines [2].