National medicines policies can aid the safe use of medicines by ensuring availability of quality products, appropriate information for prescribers and consumers, strengthening the national medicines regulatory capacity and improving access to expert advice and authoritative laboratory testing. We report the findings of a workshop on medicines safety, which focused on the Asia Pacific region. P...

This paper attempts to describe and analyse the policy processes that led to the granting and implementation of the government use licenses to enable the import and production of generic versions of medicines patented in Thailand. The decision to grant the series of government use licenses was taken despite much domestic and international controversy. The paper demonstrates that the policy proc...

the broader context of service provision, it is important that this does not race ahead of clear prescribing policies, underpinned by pharmocoeconomic considerations. We agree with the respondents that since buprenorphine is more expensive than methadone, the pharmocoeconomic aspects of prescribing need rigorous investigation. Whilst the studies they cite provide preliminary evidence of equipoi...

Generic medicines are a key strategy used by governments and third-party payers to contain medicines costs and improve the access to essential medicines. This strategy represents an important opportunity provided by the global intellectual property regimes to discover and develop copies of original products marketed by innovator companies once the patent protection term is over. While there is ...

BACKGROUND Across European countries, differences exist in biosimilar policies, leading to variations in uptake of biosimilars and divergences in savings all over Europe. OBJECTIVES The aim of this article is to provide an overview of different initiatives and policies that may influence the uptake of biosimilars in different European countries. Recommendations will be formulated on how to cr...

©2015 8872147 Canada Inc. or its licensors CMAJ, November 17, 2015, 187(17) E483 After decades of debate without federal action, it appears the conversation about universal public drug coverage is changing. “The salience of this issue right now is arguably the highest it’s ever been,” says Steve Morgan, professor of health policy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “Twenty years...

BACKGROUND Barriers to expanding access to medicines include weak pharmaceutical sector governance, lack of transparency and accountability, inadequate attention to social services on the political agenda, and financing challenges. Multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the Medicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) may help overcome these barriers. Between 2008 and 2015, MeTA engaged stakeholders i...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to analyze which pharmaceutical policies European countries applied during the global financial crisis. METHODS We undertook a survey with officials from public authorities for pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement of 33 European countries represented in the PPRI (Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information) network based on a questionnaire...

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 o...

Country: Denmark Partner Institute: University of Southern Denmark, Odense Survey no: (11)2008 Author(s): Frølich, Anne, Strandberg-Larsen, Martin and Michaela L. Schiøtz Health Policy Issues: HR Training/Capacities, System Organisation/ Integration, Public Health, Long term care, Quality Improvement, New Technology, Prevention, Benefit Basket, Funding / Pooling, Pharmaceutical Policy, Politica...