Pricing & Reimbursement - Seven Major Markets Update
Governments and payers across the seven major markets are implementing cost-cutting initiatives to combat escalating healthcare costs, putting even greater pressure on pharma companies. In addition to the credit crunch, ever fewer novel products are coming to market, contributing to the declining return on investment.
It is now a perquisite to perform pharmacoeconomic assessments early on in the drug development process and provide cost effective evaluations to ensure access to reimbursement lists.
In the, US pharma companies can expect the Federal government and insurance providers to seek out negotiations to cut drug costs. Presently, Medicare is unable to negotiate drug prices with Pharma, although a Democratic government will want to amend legislation giving it more power to challenge Pharma on drug prices.
Parallel trade will continue to play a role in driving down drug prices in Europe. However, as drug price differences between EU countries decreases due to reference pricing, coupled with the claw-back system imposed on pharmacies, the incentive to use parallel traded products will progressively weaken.
