The event 3rd Annual Pharma Pricing Strategies (15-16 January 2008 in Rome) brought together the experts from the innovative pharmaceutical companies & national healthcare authorities across various European countries to Rome. This conference pointed out the need of the industry to achieve a better dialogue with the governments and to secure the adequate reimbursement for a drug.
During 2 days, participants had the opportunity to benchmark their experiences with demonstrating the value of a drug, with achieving an optimal price level and gaining a rapid market access. The main discussion was focused on the biggest challenge for Pharma companies nowdays "How can a Pharma company successfully operate under the increasing pressure of governments to lower their prices of drugs".
The programme was opened with a key note delivered by Professor Claudio Jommi, Bocconi University. His presentation focused on the regionalisation process and market access in Italy. He provided an in-depth overview about the Italian National Healthcare System, what competences have been decentralised to regions and how are the Pharma companies facing this regionalisation process.
The session on "Achieving competitive advantage in current pricing and reimbursement environment" started with a case study focusing on the evidence requirements and price negotiations in Europe. The audience had the chance to learn, why the evidences are not enough to achieve a price and access in Europe, how the evidences requirements vary across different European markets and recommendations done on how to present evidences to decision makers.
Communicating effectively with decision makers is a skill itself with a rising importance nowdays. And this was exactly the main idea of a case study from Sanofi Aventis (delivered by Ms. Sylvie Gabriel, Director of Scientific Communication). She explained, how they at Sanofi Aventis communicate the health economic data, what are the target audiences and what is the impact on pricing & reimbursement decisions for new drugs.
The case studies on Pricing & Reimbursement environment in Switzerland, Sweden and Germany have been presented by the local national institutes and decision makers. In particular, Santesuisse, LFN (Pharmaceutical Benefits Board) and IQWIG. All of them provided a lot of valuable information on recent developments and expected changes in their national healthcare systems.
Day 1 finished with a roundtable discussion (moderated by Mr. Andrea Rappagliosi, Vice President Corporate Health Policy & Government Relations, Merckserono, Switzerland) on Pharma industry experiences with securing the reimbursement status for a new drug and future outlook concerning the Pricing & Reimbursement policies in European Union.
The following day provided a nice overview of P&R environment in EU members vs EU candidates – Croatia & Turkey. Especially a case study on Turkey was highly appreciated, because there is a new pricing policy. Ms. Demet Göl (Market Access Manager, Novartis, Turkey) covered with her presentation all the implications of a new reform shaping the evolution of the P&R environment in Turkey.
Dasa Laslopova
Senior Conference Producer – Life Sciences
Jacob Fleming Group
