Pharmaceuticals Purchasing: Lessons From Other Countries

Dr. James Robinson of UC Berkeley cautions against the widening gulf and conflict between the increasing prices set by drugmakers and the increasingly strict access criteria set by insurers in the US. In his latest article, Dr. Robinson describes how the UK, Germany, France, Australia, Norway, and Switzerland have avoided this conflict, making their purchasing processes more efficient, their outcomes more effective, and their treatment of patients more ethical. Robinson goes on to suggest that there is something here for the US to learn:

“Policy idealists see the potential for a mutually beneficial deescalation involving drug pricing, with pharmaceutical firms aligning their prices with the value-based benchmarks developed by independent health technology assessment entities such as the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, and with payers limiting their prior authorization and cost sharing policies to levels that do not interfere with appropriate physician prescription and patient adherence.”

Read the full article here.

(Source: Robinson JC. Sophisticated Purchasing of Pharmaceuticals: Learning From Other Countries. JAMA. Published online September 28, 2020)