External reference pricing (ERP), also known as international reference pricing, is the practice of regulating the price of a medication in one country, by comparing with the price in a "basket" of other reference countries. It contrasts with internal reference pricing, where the price of one drug is compared to the domestic price of therapeutically related drugs, and with cost-plus pricing , where the price involves negotiating an acceptable markup to the unit cost to develop and produce. [8] : 300
For using ERP in medicine cost regulation policies, the Euripid collaboration recommends the following 12 key principles: [9]
Access to needed essential medicines is an international human right, also named the "right to health", as stated by the United Nations and the WHO. [10] : 209 [11] [12] In 2001, the World Health Assembly passed the resolution No. 54.11 that called for exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing systems to ensure medicines affordability and availability. [10] : 209 The WHO/HAI methodology and database is one of the projects that were created in response, [10] [11] along with the WHO recommending the implementation of centralized price sharing systems and the implementation of pharmaceutical price cost-containment policies. [13] : 192
Medicines pricing policies are defined as "regulations and processes used by government authorities to set the price of a medicine as part of exercising price control". [13] : 190 ERP is a mechanism for price control, or cost-containment policy. [13] : 192 A quarter of all health expenditures globally is on medicines. [12] However, authorities may want to control other components than price, such as prescription volumes. [13] : 190
ERP is a widely accepted tool to design cost-containment policies, used in the European Union, Brazil, Jordan, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. [2] : 13 This is used as the main drug pricing strategy in 23 of 27 European countries in 2019. [8] : 302 In 2010, 20 members out of 27 in the European Union and 24 countries in the OCDE were using it. [3] [14] For this usage, each country usually has a legal framework to define the calculation of ERP and selection of reference products, with variations across high-income countries (e.g., using the median price or instead the lowest price across the reference countries), but the majority use ex-factory prices. [8] : 302 [2] : 21 A basket prices are ideally drawn from countries in the same global region and similar economy. For example, Pakistan uses prices from Bangladesh and India, while Iran uses prices from Greece, Spain, Turkey and the drug country of origin. However pricing data from LMICs can be lacking, and in such situations, international medicine prices can be obtained from the International Medical Products Price Guide. [8] : 303 The United Kingdom has a critical role in the ERP system, as it is often used as a reference country since medication prices are often low, [8] : 302 although it is not using ERP itself. [1]
The WHO recommend in the Guideline on Country Pharmaceutical Pricing Policies that countries "use a combination of different pharmaceutical pricing policies that should be selected on the objective, context and health system". [13] : 191–192 As of 2019 [update] ERP superseded or completed older cost-containment strategies such as cost-plus or internal reference pricing. [8] : 300
European countries saw a 76% rise in pharmaceutical outpatient expenditure between 2000 and 2009. [8] : 302 Furthermore, the 2008 global financial crisis added to the financial pressure, which prompted most European countries to consider health expenditures as a major target for healthcare cost reduction. [8] : 302 [2] : 13 European countries which were affected by the global financial crisis have reported restricted access to essential medicines. [12] : 4
ERP is one of the major mechanism used by these countries for this purpose, along others such as direct price control (i.e., fixed maximum prices), profit ceiling, internal reference pricing and free pricing. [8] : 302 [1] ERP is most commonly used by high-income countries to control the prices of patented medicines, or with other intellectual property rights such as pricing monopolies, for therapeutic agents that are state-reimbursed. [8] : 302 European Union countries started building medicine prices databases since the 1990s, [17] : 262 which led to the creation of Hungary's Common European Drug Database in 2008 [17] : 263 and its successor Euripid since 2009, [18] a database with standardly formatted data on drug prices and pricing regulations, fed with data from participating countries who are the only ones who can access the data in return, [18] and is used as a shared and centralized ERP system. [17] : 263 [9] [19] Japan is an exception, using ERP to systematically adjust local prices within a range of the ERP according to a formula. [8] : 302
Drug prices are reevaluated regularly in European countries, ranging from 3 months in Greece, to 5 years in France. [8] : 302
Few studies have investigated the impact of ERP on high-income countries, but two studies conducted in countries both inside and outside of the European Union found no substantial decrease or increase in drug prices. [8] : 302 Furthermore, with the widespread adoption of ERP, pharmaceutical manufacturers are developing counter strategies to limit the negative impacts on them, such as reduced drug prices. [8] : 302 One strategy is to delay the launch of new drug products into the market, as is the case with Belgium, being usually not among the countries with the highest drug prices in the European Union. [8] : 302 This increase in the launch delay of new medicines is however observed to some extent in all European countries implementing ERP. [20] : 212 [21] Another observed strategy in Germany and New Zealand is to deliberately keep the prices of some medicines high, knowing these countries would later be used as reference countries to derive higher external reference prices. [8] : 302 These counter strategies raise the question of the sustainability of ERP as an objective measure. [8] : 302
In several European countries, implementing ERP led to a decrease of the average drug price, but not the maximum nor minimum drug prices. Since the ERP was the sole criterion for drug pricing in these countries, the observed decrease can only be due to ERP implementation. It was also observed that prices decreases was correlated with the frequency of price revision, with countries infrequently revising prices having flat prices, whereas those with frequent revising saw a regular price decline over time. The median drug price decrease observed at 10 years was approximately 15%. [2] : 43–46
A report for the European Commission simulated various ERP use strategies for drug price regulation, and found that frequent price revisions, iterative price cuts, having a large number of countries in the basket, price calculation methods, the impact of generics and prices’ sources were the most influent parameters on the drug prices evolution over time for countries using ERP as their main criterion for drug price regulation. [2] : 107 Although it is conceptually inadequate to use ERP for drug price regulation instead of as a benchmark measure, [2] : 107 [6] this report concludes that ERP can be a "very effective tool", especially when several of the aforementioned strategies are combined. [2] : 107
In the United States, medicines prices, which are not directly regulated by any cost-containment policy ("free pricing"), [13] : 191 continually rank among the highest in the world. [22] [16] There are political discussions As of 2019 [update] to implement ERP in the United States. [16] [23]
High medicine price and availability are the two crucial obstacles preventing one-third of the global population, [11] : xi, 1 [13] : 189 or about two billion people, [10] : 209 mainly in low and moderate-income countries (LMICs, as defined by the World Bank), [24] from accessing needed medication. [11] [13] There is evidence that medicine prices are not correlated to income differences between countries, with essential medicines being higher priced in low income countries than in high income countries due to retail markups. [25] : 27
Whereas European Union and OCDE countries have put in place shared regulated medication cost-containment systems, low and moderate-income countries did not and lack health-care information systems to help in policy decision making, which worsened their situation as "price acceptors". [8] : 303 Indeed, their out-of-pocked expenditure increased, with 61% to 77% (per capita) of total pharmaceutical expenditure being paid by individuals out of their pocket with no state-reimbursement. [8] : 303 [11] Pharmaceuticals expenditures also account for an important share of all expenditure on health, particularly in low-income countries with a mean of 30.4% in 2006 compared to 19.7% in high-income countries. [26] Furthermore, medicines prices are usually high, particularly in the private sector and up to 80 times the price in high-income countries; availability can be low, particularly in the public sector; treatments are often unaffordable, requiring 15 days of wage to buy a 30 days treatment; government procurement can be inefficient by buying expensive original medication as well as cheaper generics; and numerous taxes and duties are being applied to medicines, including essential ones. [11] : 4 These issues were observed in China, an upper-middle-income economy, [24] with its bribery scandals involving GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi. [27]
However, inspired by the use of ERP by high-income countries and the lesser technical and analytical requirements to implement ERP compared to other price control mechanisms such as cost-plus or pharmacoeconomic analysis, [8] : 303 [3] LMICs are increasingly following suit, by using ERP in combination with other methods of cost control (cost plus, internal reference pricing, profit controls, economic evaluation, direct fixation). [8] : 303
Similarly to high-income countries, there is only limited evidence as to the impact of ERP in LMICs. However, some countries such as Turkey and Indonesia saw a decrease in drug prices following the implementation of ERP, although there is no objectively direct evidence this decrease was caused by the introduction of ERP. [8] : 303
As of 2017 [update] , a systematic review found that markup regulation and ERP are the most commonly implemented drug pricing policies in LMICs, followed by cost-plus and the use of generics. [4]
Another review found limited evidence that implementing ERP had the effect of narrowing down the prices, by lowering drug prices in high-price countries and raising them in low-price countries. [6] Hence, it is suggested that optimal ERP implementations are dependent on a clear set of requirements and calculation in full transparency, and that ERP should not be used as the sole pricing mechanism but rather as one benchmark for pricing decisions. [6]
ERP differs from internal reference pricing, or therapeutic reference pricing, where the price of a medication is compared against other domestic drugs that are its therapeutic equivalents, based on a given ATC level. [8] [13] : 200 [28] : 9 This sets a reference price for a class of equivalent or similar therapeutic agents, the rest being paid out-of-pocket by the patient. [26] Hence, a prerequisite of internal reference pricing is the availability of comparable medicines, which usually implies this can be implemented only after patents expiry and when generic or biosimilar medicines enter the market. [13] : 193
Internal reference pricing may reduce expenditures in the short term by incentivizing people to use the reference drugs at the reference price, but the effect on drugs with a higher price than reference and on health is uncertain. [26] [29] Some countries, such as Denmark which has a long history of using ERP, switched to internal reference pricing. [2] : 17 In 2016, out of 42 surveyed countries including WHO European countries, Canada and South Africa, 30 reported having internal reference pricing between generics, but only 15 also applied this policy to biosimilar medicines. [13] : 193
A generic drug is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by chemical patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire. Because the active chemical substance is the same, the medical profile of generics is equivalent in performance. A generic drug has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) as the original, but it may differ in some characteristics such as the manufacturing process, formulation, excipients, color, taste, and packaging.
The healthcare industry is an aggregation and integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care. It includes the generation and commercialization of goods and services lending themselves to maintaining and re-establishing health. The modern healthcare industry includes three essential branches which are services, products, and finance and may be divided into many sectors and categories and depends on the interdisciplinary teams of trained professionals and paraprofessionals to meet health needs of individuals and populations.
Prescription drug list prices in the United States continually rank among the highest in the world. The high cost of prescription drugs became a major topic of discussion in the 21st century, leading up to the American health care reform debate of 2009, and received renewed attention in 2015. One major reason for high prescription drug prices in the United States relative to other countries is the inability of government-granted monopolies in the American health care sector to use their bargaining power to negotiate lower prices and that the American payer ends up subsidizing the world's R&D spending on drugs.
A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is only permitted to be dispensed to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a program of the Australian Government that subsidises prescription medication for Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as international visitors covered by a reciprocal health care agreement. The PBS is separate to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, a list of health care services that can be claimed under Medicare, Australia's universal health care insurance scheme.
The pharmaceutical industry is one of the leading industries in the People's Republic of China, covering synthetic chemicals and drugs, prepared Chinese medicines, medical devices, apparatus and instruments, hygiene materials, packing materials, and pharmaceutical machinery. China has the second-largest pharmaceutical market in the world as of 2017 which is worth US$110 billion. China accounts for 20% of the world's population but only a small fraction of the global drug market. China's changing health-care environment is designed to extend basic health insurance to a larger portion of the population and give individuals greater access to products and services. Following the period of change, the pharmaceutical industry is expected to continue its expansion.
Direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) refers to the marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to consumers as patients, as opposed to specifically targeting health professionals. The term is synonymous primarily with the advertising of prescription medicines via mass media platforms—most commonly on television and in magazines, but also via online platforms.
Pharmaceutical policy is a branch of health policy that deals with the development, provision and use of medications within a health care system. It embraces drugs, biologics, vaccines and natural health products.
Pharmacy in China involves the activities engaged in the preparation, standardization and dispensing of drugs, and its scope includes the cultivation of plants that are used as drugs, the synthesis of chemical compounds of medicinal value, and the analysis of medicinal agents. Pharmacists in China are responsible for the preparation of the dosage forms of drugs, such as tablets, capsules, and sterile solutions for injection. They compound physicians', dentists', and veterinarians' prescriptions for drugs. Pharmacological activities are also closely related to pharmacy in China.
Germany has a universal multi-payer health care system paid for by a combination of statutory health insurance and private health insurance.
Medication costs, also known as drug costs are a common health care cost for many people and health care systems. Prescription costs are the costs to the end consumer. Medication costs are influenced by multiple factors such as patents, stakeholder influence, and marketing expenses. A number of countries including Canada, parts of Europe, and Brasil use external reference pricing as a means to compare drug prices and to determine a base price for a particular medication. Other countries use pharmacoeconomics, which looks at the cost/benefit of a product in terms of quality of life, alternative treatments, and cost reduction or avoidance in other parts of the health care system. Structures like the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and to a lesser extent Canada's Common Drug Review evaluate products in this way.
Healthcare in the United States is far outspent than any other nation, measured both in per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP. Despite this, the country has significantly worse healthcare outcomes when compared to peer nations. The US is the only developed nation without a system of universal healthcare, with a large proportion of its population not carrying health insurance, a substantial factor in the country's excess mortality.
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a Unitaid-backed international organisation founded in July 2010, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its public health driven business model aims to lower the prices of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV treatments through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. Its goal is to improve access to affordable and appropriate HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In May 2020, the MPP become an implementing partner of the WHO's Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).
Access to medicines refers to the reasonable ability for people to get needed medicines required to achieve health. Such access is deemed to be part of the right to health as supported by international law since 1946.
Drug recycling, also referred to as medication redispensing or medication re-use, is the idea that health care organizations or patients with unused drugs can transfer them in a safe and appropriate way to another patient in need. The purpose of such a program is reducing medication waste, thereby saving healthcare costs, enlarging medications’ availability and alleviating the environmental burden of medication.
Health Action International (HAI) is a non-profit organization based in The Netherlands. Established in 1981, HAI works to expand access to essential medicines through research, policy analysis and intervention projects. The organization focuses on snakebite envenoming, access to insulin and developing European policies on medicines. HAI is listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an official non-state actor.
International Medical Products Price Guide, formerly known as International Drug Price Indicator Guide, lists drug price information for WHO Essential Medicines. It is maintained by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) on behalf of the World Health Organization. The guide has been published annually since 1986 with the World Health Organization becoming involved in 2000, though has not been updated since 2015. The prices in the guide are specifically for low and middle income countries (LMIC).
The median price ratio (MPR) is the ratio given by dividing the median local unit price of a medication by the median international reference unit price, usually from the International Medical Products Price Guide. This measure was created in 2003 by the Health Action International (HAI) and World Health Organization (WHO) as a standard measure to facilitate national and international comparisons of drug prices.
The WHO/Health Action International Project on Medicine Prices and Availability was a partnership between the World Health Organization and Health Action International. It developed a system and methodology for measuring the price, availability and affordability of medicines. The project surveyed over 50 countries. It also created guidance for low-and-middle-income countries to help their governments and associated health organisations to implement policies on drug prices.
Under Korean law, Koreans are prohibited from using drugs, even if they are in a country where the use of drugs is legal. South Koreans are forbidden to smoke marijuana, even if they are in countries where cannabis use is legalised or tolerated. When they return to South Korea, smoking a joint abroad can be punished with a prison sentence of up to five years. Cultivating, transporting or possessing cannabis is also illegal under South Korean criminal law, wherever you are. The Korean government regularly reminds its citizens of this prohibition. For example, the South Korean Embassy in Canada wrote that "it is illegal for South Koreans to use cannabis, even if they are in a region where cannabis is legal". The Korean police also recently announced in an appeal that South Koreans can be punished at home if they smoke cannabis in a country where it is legal.
In all of the case study countries, a manufacturer submitting a new product for pricing is obliged to provide the price of the product in the reference countries. Failure to do so or to provide false information could lead to fines and penalties.
If medicine prices are not regulated, they tend to vary between dispensaries and retailers of a country. To survey medicine prices in these contexts, the WHO/HAI methodology was developed, and it was frequently used for conducting price studies.
Although they did not observe a direct effect of regulation on launch price, they did find an effect of regulation on launch timing. Apparently, regulatory restrictions are more useful to regulators in constraining the price of mature drugs rather than the price of newly launched drugs.