13 November 2024
Webinar Recap: Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life?
Webinar Recap: Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life?
13 November 2024Who is preventing transparency in the pricing of medicines and why? How come some countries in Europe end up paying double the price for the same medicines as others? These were some of the questions asked during our live event: Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life? A panel of experts discussed the reasons of such secrecy behind prices in Europe’s medicine systems.
Speakers
- Eliana Barrenho, health economist at OECD
- Gayle Pledger, patient rights advocate, launched the "Right to Breathe" campaign,
- Wilbert Bannenberg, expert in public health, founder of the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation
- Eurydice Bersi, journalist at Reporters United and one of the coordinators for Deadly prices.
- Moderator: Maxence Peigné, Investigate Europe reporter
Deadly prices exposed many hidden aspects of the debate around unequal access to medicines across Europe. This is why we wanted to take the conversation further and invite voices from advocacy, research, and expert groups into the same virtual room so they could dive further into our findings, weighing not just the problems but also the possible solutions. Representatives from the pharmaceutica declined an invitation to join the event.
Our team, represented by Eurydice Bersi and Maxence Peigne, explained how the investigation’s findings showed an alarming trend where poorer countries are being charged more than affluent nations for medicines. This sparked a conversation about how necessary yet scarce transparency is over the agreements between nations and big pharma. Eliana Barrenho, an OECD health economist, presented the findings of her latest research paper which assessed there is a broad interest in sharing price medicines with the aim to boost price regulation, however, only seven of the 34 countries surveyed would be open to sharing information about their own negotiations.
Gayle Pledger, whose daughter suffers from cystic fibrosis, has been advocating for equal access to treatments for years via the UK-based Right to Breathe campaign. Gayle explained the reality that patients face due to unequal pricing and access across Europe of life-saving medicines for the debilitating condition.
Wilbert Bannenberg, founder of the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, talked about his experiences in the Netherlands and how discrepancies exist between cost of production and value. He focused on the case of Adalimumab, branded as Humira and produced by AbbVie, a high-cost drug which earns the company up to 78 per cent in gross profits. Wilbert is currently leading a court case In the Netherlands with the aim to determine a limit on how much profit a pharmaceutical company is entitled legally to make from an essential medicine.
The speakers had an engaged audience who contributed lively to the conversation by submitting questions and comments into the chat throughout. Some of the questions asked were related to the EU commission supporting price transparency and what leverage they have over controlling prices in exchange for more innovation and production. The audience also showed interest in the power dynamics between countries, the lack of correlation between cost of production and value and the recent US elections could affect this.
Our team, represented by Eurydice Bersi and Maxence Peigne, explained how the investigation’s findings showed an alarming trend where poorer countries are being charged more than affluent nations for medicines. This sparked a conversation about how necessary yet scarce transparency is over the agreements between nations and big pharma. Eliana Barrenho, an OECD health economist, presented the findings of her latest research paper which assessed there is a broad interest in sharing price medicines with the aim to boost price regulation, however, only seven of the 34 countries surveyed would be open to sharing information about their own negotiations.
Gayle Pledger, whose daughter suffers from cystic fibrosis, has been advocating for equal access to treatments for years via the UK-based Right to Breathe campaign. Gayle explained the reality that patients face due to unequal pricing and access across Europe of life-saving medicines for the debilitating condition.
Wilbert Bannenberg, founder of the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation, talked about his experiences in the Netherlands and how discrepancies exist between cost of production and value. He focused on the case of Adalimumab, branded as Humira and produced by AbbVie, a high-cost drug which earns the company up to 78 per cent in gross profits. Wilbert is currently leading a court case In the Netherlands with the aim to determine a limit on how much profit a pharmaceutical company is entitled legally to make from an essential medicine.
The speakers had an engaged audience who contributed lively to the conversation by submitting questions and comments into the chat throughout. Some of the questions asked were related to the EU commission supporting price transparency and what leverage they have over controlling prices in exchange for more innovation and production. The audience also showed interest in the power dynamics between countries, the lack of correlation between cost of production and value and the recent US elections could affect this.