The consequences of greater net price transparency for innovative medicines in Europe: Searching for a consensus

Abstract

The merits of greater or lesser net price transparency (NPT) has been a topic for discussion for many years across business and industry in general. However, in the past few years, the debate on NPT of innovative medicines has intensified, with organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) leading calls for greater transparency in the pharmaceutical sector, specifically focused on prices. In May 2019 the World Health Assembly (WHA) approved a resolution to support the greater public disclosure of prices and research and development (R&D) costs for both medicines and other health products supported by several European and non-European governments. To contribute to the international debate on the transparency of medicine prices in Europe, Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) asked Charles River Associates (CRA) to curate a panel of experts to develop evidence on the impact of greater NPT of innovative medicines. Professor Walter Van Dyck1 and Professor Massimo Riccaboni2 were asked by CRA to lead this research, supported by a wider panel of 10 experts from a range of European markets. A structured literature review was first conducted to summarise the theoretical consequences of greater NPT. This was supplemented with a survey of national payers and payer experts3 from a range of European markets. This was used as pre-read information for an expert advisory board of 12 economic and health economic experts representing 12 countries selected to give a range of market sizes, national income and payer approaches. The debate and the consensus reached by the advisory board have been summarised in this report. In addition, a computational model has been developed by two key investigators to provide new, empirical evidence to illustrate the impact of NPT on different European markets.