The fourth meeting of the WHO’s Fair Pricing Forum represents an important opportunity to discuss how the global health community can work together to improve access to medicines and vaccines, deliver on the ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. IFPMA and our members continue to be committed to these goals and welcome the opportunity to share perspectives on how we can work together to achieve them.

IFPMA will be represented in key sessions throughout the Forum, with the aim at bringing forward evidence and solutions to inform healthcare policy and practice to improve patient access.

Medicines and vaccines are supporting people all over the world to live longer and healthier lives and are essential in tackling the very biggest global health challenges, from cancer to preparing for future pandemics. These medical breakthroughs are supported by an ecosystem enabled by intellectual property and partnerships.

Over the last 10 years alone, the pharmaceutical industry has developed over 470 medicines to treat diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, alongside developing vaccines that protect against more than 30 diseases, including meningococcal diseases, Ebola, malaria, COVID-19, and human papillomavirus (HPV).

Enabling access to these medicines should be front and center in policy dialogue at the global, regional, and local level. The barriers that prevent patients from accessing the medicines and vaccines they need are complex and a broad range of partnerships and solutions are needed to successfully address them.

If we are going to tackle barriers to access and support patients to receive innovative treatments, we must look to reimbursement and procurement processes to strengthen the funding and capacity of healthcare systems and ensure they have the facilities and skills to diagnose, treat, and support patients. Focusing solely on pricing risks falling short of addressing the complexity of challenges we have to tackle collectively.

Pharmaceutical companies are working in partnership with healthcare systems and governments to ensure patients can access new treatments, with approaches that are as innovative as the medicines themselves. Tools such as tiered pricing, voluntary licensing, sustainable capacity building, and value-based healthcare are all delivering for patients across the globe.

Tiered, or differential, pricing allows the price of a medicine to reflect the unique needs of each country’s healthcare system, resources, ability to pay, regulatory environment, and the prices of similar innovation. Industry also works closely with payers, governments, and health care systems around the world to develop flexible and tailored pricing solutions.

By applying a value-based approach to pricing, we can strike a balance between supporting access to medicines for as many patients as possible, while maintaining an ability to invest and deliver future innovation.

The provision of UHC, the level of health system infrastructure and capacity – including diagnosis and specialist care – and government investment in healthcare and innovation all impact the extent to which patients can receive medicines that could help them.

About IFPMA

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) represents over 90 innovative pharmaceutical companies and associations around the world. Our industry’s almost three million employees discover, develop, and deliver medicines and vaccines that advance global health. Based in Geneva, IFPMA has official relations with the United Nations and contributes industry expertise to help the global health community improve the lives of people everywhere. For more information, visit ifpma.org.

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Media Contact

Elliot Dunster e.dunster@ifpma.org