[Webinar] Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life?

Andrea Abellán
Andrea Abellán
24 October 2024

EN

Join us for Discussing Deadly prices: A webinar featuring experts, patients, and journalists who will shine a light on the opaque truths behind unequal drug pricing access to life saving medicines across Europe.
People across Europe are facing exorbitant waits and prices for life-saving medications due largely to opaque and unequal pricing agreements. The details behind these decisions are relatively unknown, allowing them to go unchecked. That is one of the reasons why we launched our biggest investigation to date and now this live webinar, Deadly prices. This event will let you get involved and join a conversation with a group of experts, journalists, and patients who will unravel the investigation’s findings.

Webinar details


Speakers


  • Eliana Barrenho is a health economist at the OECD with 15 years of experience in health economics research and health policy. She leads diverse analytical projects focusing on pharmaceutical policy in member countries. Her work includes developing robust OECD indicators for industry performance, identifying best practices to enhance competition in both on- and off-patent markets, and quantifying private and public R&D investments to address unmet medical needs. Eliana has co-authored two OECD reports:Exploring the Consequences of Greater Price Transparency on the Dynamics of Pharmaceutical Markets and Exploring the Feasibility of Sharing Medicine Net Price Information Across OECD Countries.

  • Gayle Pledger has been involved in activism and fighting against high prices and access issues around cystic fibrosis modulators since 2017. She was able to convince the UK government to threaten Vertex's patents in order to save lives, leading to new negotiations and a lower price. Based on the lessons learnt in the UK, she founded the global campaign group Vertex Save Us.  In February 2023, together with the UK-based patient organisation Just Treatment, she launched the 'Right to Breathe' campaign across 4 continents, as reported in the New York Times. She continues to challenge Vertex’s extreme profit-driven behaviour and pushes for access to CF treatments in more excluded countries.

  • Wilbert Bannenberg is a medical doctor expert in public health and epidemiology who’s focused on promoting access to essential medicines in low and middle-income countries, mainly in sub-saharan Africa. He founded the Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (2018) and led the Fair Pharma Scorecard during the pandemic to combat overpricing and assess companies’ adherence to business and human rights. He is also an active member of several health organisations, teaches at universities and has published articles on essential medicines. 

  • Eurydice Bersi is a member of the investigative journalists team Reporters United, Investigate Europe’s partner in Greece. Since its first steps, she’s been one of the coordinators for our Deadly prices investigation and lately she has presented the investigation’s findings in eventslike the World Cancer Congress in Geneva. She has over twenty years of experience on the foreign desk at Kathimerini, a leading daily newspaper in Greece.

  • Event moderated by Maxence Peigné, an Investigate Europe reporter who’s focus includes the UK, France, and Ireland. Maxence has contributed to the unique data on the cost value of medicines which provided the backbone of the investigation. Before joining IE he worked as a travel writer, a TV and radio producer and as a UK correspondent and has worked for outlets such as France Télévision, Radio France and the BBC World Service. He was awarded the”Reporter D’espoir” Solutions Journalism award in 2019. 
    • Does the pharma industry dictate the price of life? A discussion on inequality in medicine access

    What you will learn


    During this live session, you will:

    • Discover the methodologies used in the Deadly prices investigation by our team.
    • Understand how shady price agreements between countries and pharmaceutical companies affect the wellbeing of EU citizens.
    • Engage with patients, industry experts and our journalists on the implications of the investigation’s findings.

    HELP US CONNECT THE DOTS ON EUROPE

    Support cross-border journalism

    Donate

    Cross-border stories from a changing Europe, in your inbox.