Q&A: Why the World Health Organization plans a fair pricing model for drugs

Friday, July 8, 2016

Over the next year, the World Health Organization wants to develop a fair pricing model for pharmaceuticals. Toward that end, the agency plans to convene governments, patient groups, and drug makers to fashion the notion into something realistic. The trick is to find the right balance between access to affordable medicines and enticing companies to develop new and improved medicines, while also ensuring lower-cost generics remain available.

We spoke with Suzanne Hill, the WHO Director of Essential Medicines and Health Products, about how the agency hopes to get this done. This is an edited version of our conversation.

Pharmalot: So how did this come about?

Hill: We’ve been thinking about this for a while because it’s clear the problem with prices of medicines is now a global issue, not just mostly for low- and middle-income countries, as in the past. We’ve seen examples with medicines forhepatitis C and cancer. It’s happening with orphan drugs.

Source: Stat News (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care