This report reviews the important role of medicines in health sytems, describes recent trends in pharmaceutical expenditure and financing, and summarises the approaches used by OECD countries to determine coverage and pricing.

This report reviews the important role of medicines in health sytems, describes recent trends in pharmaceutical expenditure and financing, and summarises the approaches used by OECD countries to determine coverage and pricing.

This report assesses how pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies have contributed to the achievement of certain health policy objectives, and it examines the national and transnational effects of these policies.

This report discusses the need for an integrated and cyclical approach to managing health technology in order to mitigate clinical and financial risks, and ensure acceptable value for money. The analysis considers how health systems and policy makers should adapt in terms of development, assessment and uptake of health technologies. The first chapter provides an examination of adoption and impact of medical technology in the past and how health systems are preparing for continuation of such trends in the future. Subsequent chapters examine the need to balance innovation, value, and access for pharmaceuticals and medical devices, respectively, followed by a consideration of their combined promise in the area of precision medicine. The final chapter examines how health systems can make better use of health data and digital technologies. The report focuses on opportunities linked to new and emerging technologies as well as current challenges faced by policy makers, and suggests a new governance framework to address these challenges.

This study has emerged from an ongoing program of trilateral cooperation between WHO, WTO and WIPO. It responds to an increasing demand, particularly in developing countries, for strengthened capacity for informed policy-making in areas of intersection between health, trade and IP, focusing on access to and innovation of medicines and other medical technologies.

This report identifies eight key data governance mechanisms to maximise benefits to patients and to societies from the collection, linkage and analysis of health data, and to minimise risks to both patient privacy and the security of health data.

In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems' ability to provide population-wide access to essential medicines. Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products. This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.

This report explores how data and digital technology can help achieve policy objectives and drive positive transformation in the health sector while managing new risks such as privacy, equity and implementation costs. It examines the following topics: improving service delivery models; empowering people to take an active role in their health and their care; improving public health; managing biomedical technologies; enabling better collaboration across borders; and improving health system governance and stewardship. It also examines how health workforces should be equipped to make the most of digital technology. The report contains findings from surveys of OECD countries and shares a range of examples that illustrate the potential benefits as well as challenges of the digital transformation in the health sector. Findings and recommendations are relevant for policymakers, health care providers, payers, industry as well as patients, citizens and civil society.

Equitable Access to High-Cost Pharmaceuticals seeks to aid the development and implementation of equitable public health policies by pharmaco-economics professionals, health economists, and policymakers. With detailed country-by country analysis of policy and regulation, the Work compares and contrasts national healthcare systems to support researchers and practitioners identify optimal healthcare policy solutions. The Work incorporates chapters on global regulatory changes, health technology assessment guidelines, and competitive effectiveness research recommendations from international bodies such as the OECD or the EU. Novel policies such as horizon scanning, managed-entry agreement and post-launch monitoring are considered in detail. The Work also thoroughly reviews novel pharmaceuticals with particular research interest, including cancer drugs, orphan medicines, Hep C, and personalized medicines. - Evaluates impact and efficacy of current access policies and pricing regulation of high-cost drugs - Incorporates existing guidelines and recommendations by international organizations - Compares and contrasts how different countries fund and police high-cost drug access - Explores novel and emergent policies, including managed entry agreement, analysis of real world data and differential pricing - Reviews novel pharmaceuticals of current research interest

This study seeks to reinforce the understanding of the interplay between the distinct policy domains of health, trade and intellectual property, and of how they affect medical innovation and access to medical technologies. The second edition comprehensively reviews new developments in key areas since the initial launch of the study in 2013.