Global Fair Pricing Tensions

Posted by Ed Schoonveld on Thu, May 16, 2019

Pricing for prescription drugs has been a contentious issue around the world as payers and patients don’t understand the cause of high drug prices and are struggling with patient access. Particularly in middle- and low-income countries, affordability of drugs in cancer has become an important part of a dialogue between the World Health Organization, governments, non-governmental organizations and patient advocates. The WHO has organized several meetings to explore and drive resolutions for drug-pricing-related issues for patented and generic drugs.

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The WHO Report and Access to Cancer Medicines

Posted by Ed Schoonveld on Tue, Feb 05, 2019

The World Health Organization’s recently published report, “Pricing of Cancer Medicines and its Impacts,” has elevated the issue to the agenda of the WHO’s executive board and is likely to ignite a lot of debate and some potential actions. While the report raises some very legitimate concerns related to access to anti-cancer drugs for patients, it also falls short of understanding the pharmaceutical industry environment. Rather than simply blaming the industry, it would be more productive to understand what’s standing in the way of collaboration to address patient needs and then jointly try to develop realistic programs to resolve it.

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