WHO calls on European countries to stop rising drug prices

European governments need to share more expert opinion on the effectiveness of spending on new drugs to tackle financial stress caused by high drug prices, a World Health Organization (WHO) report says.

Illustration photo: rte.ie

Currently, very few European countries have a mechanism to assess whether the value of medicines is appropriate and commensurate with the price offered by the manufacturer.

In addition, drug supply and prices are often determined through opaque agreements between governments and manufacturers, making it difficult to increase transparency to lower drug prices.

The WHO call comes amid growing controversy over the value of new drugs, which are outside the remit of licensing bodies such as the European Medicines Agency to assess their economic benefits.

"The key objective is to protect patients' interests and ensure that new medicines are not offered at prohibitively high prices that provide little or no improvement in people's health," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

The world pharmaceutical industry is currently entering a period of strong development thanks to great achievements from research, with many new drug treatment regimens being applied.

However, the prices of some drugs have increased unreasonably, affecting people's access to pharmaceuticals, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The prices of new drugs are a "hot" topic not only among doctors and politicians, but also among investors.

High drug prices could be a boon for many manufacturers, especially biotech companies, but many investors worry that the trend will be stopped as health authorities review and rationalize spending plans.

According to Vietnam+