V23E3

Report from EPSA Annual Reception 2016
Will reducing prices of medicines ensure sustainability of
healthcare systems in Europe?
The 8th edition of the EPSA Annual Reception took
place in the heart of the European Union, at the
European Parliament in Brussels. A presentation
of EPSA’s latest achievements was followed by
a panel discussion centred on a topic important
for our profession and future of healthcare: “Will
reducing prices of medicines ensure sustainability of
healthcare systems in Europe?”
The panel consisted of representatives from different
stakeholders, who presented their views on the
matter. Menno Arnout, Director of Association Internationale
de la Mutualité (AIM) explained that
healthcare payers have not been interested in
reducing prices but in making them reasonable,
rather than making them only as low as possible. To
start the discussion about what is a reasonable price,
the healthcare payers believe that transparency of
Research & Development (R&D) costs should be
raised. He also pointed out that we often fail to
discuss what happens after medicines come to the
market.
Yannis Natsis, Policy Coordinator, Access to
Medicines from European Public Health Alliance
(EPHA), pointed out that access to medicines is
becoming a big social and human rights issue.
He also tackled the question of transparency; he
emphasised the importance of this topic since it
involves health and human lives. He pointed out that
the priority should not be the interest of stakeholders,
but the interest of the healthcare system – accessible
institutions and medicines.
Elizabeth Kuiper, Director of European Affairs,
European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries
and Associations (EFPIA) explained that the
medicines present 17% of healthcare expenses
and this has not been changing in the past years.
She stated that the current models of pricing the
drugs were not sustainable. High priced medicines
require different pricing models, as those should be
outcome oriented.
Elke Grooten, Director of Public Affairs, Sandoz
Europe, highlighted how the increased use of
cost-effective medicines and biosimilar medicines
have contributed greatly to the sustainability of the
healthcare systems. Generic medicines increase the
access to medicines and deliver better outcomes as
generics account for 22% of medicines expenditure
in Europe. Over the last ten years, the access to
patients has doubled while having no distinct effect
on the healthcare budget expenditure.
18
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association