WHO Officials Offer Opposition to Value-Based Drug Pricing

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) told reporters at an information session on Thursday that the agency has serious reservations at prices based on pharmaceutical prices.

"What is the value of life? This structure is good for luxury items, because you have a choice ... if I am sick of cancer, what is the choice? We believe value-based pricing is impossible for products that are indispensable, "said Marie-Paule Kieny, Deputy General Manager of Health Systems and Innovation, which he said.

Value-based fixing systems, such as the UK's National Institute of Health Care, decide what is price-paying and price-adjusted. In general, NICE estimates that interventions costing the National Health Service in the UK less than £ 20,000 ($ 26,000) per year of QALY are cost-effective.

Kieny spoke after a meeting of about 200 stakeholders from countries around the world in the first Just One Day Forum in Amsterdam this week sponsored by WHO and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of the Countries -Bas.

He called on countries to increase transparency in drug prices because "countries sometimes think they have the best deal and if too many countries believe, there is no movement or exchange of information ".

And although Kieny acknowledged that "innovation is not free," he also said the discussions should focus on "the real cost of R & D [research and development]" and the cost of failure, As well as set up price systems that a payer is willing to pay.


A new study published this week on the cost of anticancer drugs found worldwide that even though prices are the highest in the US, are the least affordable in India "by a large margin. "Despite falling prices, anti-cancer drugs are less affordable in middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

. Dr. Suzanne Hill, Director of Essential Medicines and Health Products WHO Kieny reiterated points about value systems, adding, "Who decides what value? He also said that the forum "is our first attempt to launch a program of action to understand the factors that determine the current structure of prices are."

He insisted on the forum of interest for collaboration between governments in "scrutinizing the horizon" or evaluating products in the industry for what is important and what is worth paying in the future , And the need for WHO to develop a list of vulnerable essential drugs. Like those of scarcity all over the world.