1. Can Transparency Lower Prices and Improve Access to Pharmaceuticals? It Depends
- Author:
- Kalipso Chalkidou and Adrian Towse
- Publication Date:
- 04-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- spending on pharmaceuticals and other healthcare commodities is high and makes up a large proportion of healthcare spending in rich and poorer markets alike. A popular response to the problem of escalating drugs budgets has been transparency of drug pricing within and across borders. In a rare alignment of policy priorities, the Trump administration, the US Senate, and the World Health Organisation are calling for more transparency of the prices paid for prescription drugs as a means of tackling the ever-growing pharmaceuticals bill. Recently Italy’s health minister joined in, calling for a World Health Assembly resolution which would mandate WHO to “provide governments with a forum for sharing information on drug prices, revenues, research and development costs, public sector investments and research and development subsidies, marketing costs and other related information.” But is price transparency really the answer to healthcare systems’ fiscal sustainability challenges as they strive to expand access to new technologies or even merely sustain provision within strained public budgets? Well, it depends!
- Topic:
- Transparency, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Price
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus