Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals have contributed to improvements in life expectancy and quality of life of many patients. Medicines can cure, relieve symptoms, delay the onset of disease and prevent complications. They often offer good value for money. However, recent trends raise a number of concerns. The launch prices of new drugs have been increasing in some therapeutic categories, sometimes without commensurate health gains. At the same time, new effective medicines are not always affordable to all patients who need them and put a high pressure on health care budgets. These trends raise questions about incentives at work in the pharmaceutical sector and the sustainability of current pricing models.

Sustainable access to innovative medicines

This project, conducted between 2016 and 2018 assesses current challenges in pharmaceutical markets, based on the best available evidence; looks at pharmaceutical industries' activities and performance and proposes a set of policy options for policy makers to consider to address current challenges

Pharmaceutical Innovation and Access to Medicines (November 2018)

Opioids

Opioids use has dramatically increased in some OECD countries, both of prescribed and illicit opioids. This has led to a sharp upsurge in addiction and overdose deaths, with serious social and economic consequences. The OECD is analysing the opioids epidemic and exploring several policy strategies that can help countries address the issue.

Opioids

Addressing the challenges of access to medicines

The OECD has undertaken several projects to further explore avenues to increase pharmaceutical expenditure efficiency and better prepare to changes in the market.

Addressing the challenges of access to medicines
Addressing challenges in access to oncology medicines (April 2020)
Performance-based managed entry agreements for new medicines (Dec. 2019)
Improving Forecasting of Pharmaceutical Spending (April 2019)
Using routinely collected data to inform pharmaceutical policies (Feb. 2019)

Antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is rapidly becoming a top health problem that could pose a significant challenge to the functioning of healthcare systems and their budget in OECD and G20 countries.

Antimicrobial resistance
Stemming the Superbug Tide: Just A Few Dollars More (November 2018)

Pharmaceutical pricing policy project

The project had two main objectives: to add to the base of information about pharmaceutical pricing policy in OECD countries and develop a taxonomy and framework for making international comparisons of policies, and to analyse cross-national impacts and implications of policies, particularly with respect to the impacts on pharmaceutical prices paid in other countries and on pharmaceutical R&D.

Pharmaceutical pricing policy project

Medical radioisotopes

The use of medical radioisotopes is an important part of modern medical practice. Each year, over 40 million people around the world benefit from nuclear medicine imaging. However, the radioisotope supply chain is susceptible to disruptions that can jeopardise the availability of these essential products. The OECD Health Division is currently cooperating with the Nuclear Energy Agency to analyse the economics of radioisotope supply and identify policy options to make supply more reliable.

Medical radioisotopes
The Supply of Medical Isotopes: An Economic Diagnosis and Possible Solutions (November 2019)

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

PUBLICATIONS

Antimicrobial Resistance in the EU/EEA: A One Health Response, Policy Brief, March 2022
Health at a Glance 2021: OECD Indicators, see chapter 10 on "Pharmaceutical sector"
New Health Technologies: Managing Access, Value and Sustainability, released January 16, 2017
Tackling Wasteful Spending on Health, see chapter 4 on "Reducing ineffective health care spending on pharmaceuticals"

COUNTRY PROFILES

Pharmaceutical Reimbursement and Pricing in Germany (June 2018)
Value in Pharmaceutical Pricing: Australia (November 2014)
Value in Pharmaceutical Pricing: Canada (November 2014)
Also read "How pharmaceutical systems are organized in Asia and the Pacific", a co-publication between WHO and the OECD which includes 2-page profiles of 14 countries (in WPRO and SEARO) and provides snapshots on how pharmaceutical systems are organised in each country. Released February 2018.

WORKING PAPERS

No. 146 - Exploring the consequences of greater price transparency on the dynamics of pharmaceutical markets (September 2022)
- Also access the related supplementary analysis
No. 139 - Improving data on pharmaceutical expenditure in hospitals and other health care settings (April 2022)
No. 137 - Shortages of medicines in OECD countries (March 2022)
Access the supplementary material related to this paper:
- Supplementary Material 1: OECD analysis of national shortage monitoring systems
- Supplementary Material 2: International trade flows of selected groups of medicines
No. 123 - Challenges in access to oncology medicines: Policies and practices across the OECD and the EU (November 2020)
No. 115 - Performance-based managed entry agreements for new medicines in OECD countries and EU member states (December 2019)
No. 90 - How OECD health systems define the range of good and services to be financed collectively (November 2016)
No. 88 - Health care coverage in OECD countries in 2012 (May 2016)
No. 87 - Pharmaceutical Expenditure and Policies: Past Trends and Future Challenges (April 2016)
No. 63 - Value in Pharmaceutical Pricing (July 2013)

CONTRIBUTIONS TO NON-OECD PUBLICATIONS

L'accès aux médicaments, article by Francesca Colombo as part of the "Cycle de conférences sur l’accès aux médicaments, Séminaire n° 4 : « Quel serait l’impact d’une plus grande transparence de certaines activités de l’industrie pharmaceutique sur l’accès aux médicaments ? », 11 May 2022, Journal de Droit de la Santé et de l’Assurance Maladie, Numéro 35, 2022, p.73
Data Rich, Information Poor: Can We Use Electronic Health Records to Create a Learning Healthcare System for Pharmaceuticals?, American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, September 2018
Ensuring access to medicines: How to redesign pricing, reimbursement and procurement?, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, 2018

OTHER OECD WORK