Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement in Europe

Nov. 3, 2011 - PRLog -- Healthcare across the European Union (EU) and majority of the European nations is largely publicly financed and is provided by health insurance systems; hence, the governments of European nations play a key role in providing healthcare for their citizens. Health is a high priority for Europe’s citizens and pharmaceutical costs are the third most costly component in the member states’ healthcare budgets. Hospital and ambulatory care spending account for the first two most important components in their health care budgets, according to a 2009 report by the European Commission. Currently, the governments of the member countries face substantially rising costs for the provision of health care (average costs are rising at a faster rate than Gross Domestic Product(GDP) due to factors such as over-prescription of drugs, their irrational usage, and other key factors such as Europe’s ageing population and increasing cost of new medical technologies. Consumer preference for branded drugs to generic drugs in cases where drug patents have expired is also contributing to increasing healthcare costs.

It was estimated that in 2009, the average number of healthy life years by people in the EU (27 countries) was 73.3 years, with Sweden accounting for the highest number of healthy life years at 79.1 years. Governments across Europe are facing growing healthcare expenditure, primarily due to ageing populations. However, recent austerity measures implemented by countries such as Italy, France, Germany and the UK to tackle the economic crisis have resulted in tightening healthcare budgets, resulting in a downward pressure on pharmaceutical prices. This is bringing changes in the pricing and reimbursement scenario in countries across Europe. The specific features of individual policies vary significantly across the member nations.

For Sample Pages, please click or add the below link to your browser:
http://www.gbiresearch.com/RequestSamplePages.aspx?ID=Pha...

After the current PPRS, the system of pricing medicines, launched in 2009 has run its course, a new value-based approach to the pricing of branded medicines, called value-based pricing (VBP) is expected to be introduced in the UK after the expiry of PPRS in 2013, despite concerns regarding the mechanism of the VBP system. The UK is among the few markets that allows drug companies to set their own prices; however, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), one of the main regulatory bodies, under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has decided to adopt VBP which will be determined by the maximum affordable cost per Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALY) generated by the use of new medicines.

GBI Research, the leading business intelligence provider, has released its latest research “Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement in Europe - Reference Pricing and Similar Initiatives Being Applied to Innovative Drugs Pose Significant Challenge to Pharmaceutical Companies”. It provides a comprehensive overview of the healthcare systems as well as pricing and reimbursement processes in 12 European nations with a detailed analysis of the different regulatory mechanisms used in these countries. The report closely scrutinizes major changes in pricing and reimbursement for pharmaceuticals in these European nations in the recent past and their impact in the near future. The countries analyzed in the report are the top five European countries as well as Eastern European countries, namely the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Hungary in addition to the Scandinavian nations Norway, Finland and Denmark

For further details, please click or add the below link to your browser:
http://www.gbiresearch.com/Report.aspx?ID=Pharmaceutical-...

Visit our report store: http://www.gbiresearch.com

For more details contact:
pressreleases@gbiresearch.com
North America:    +1 646 395 5477
Europe:        +44 207 753 4299
           +44 1204 543 533
Asia Pacific:       +91 40 6616 6782

# # #

GBI Research is a market-leading provider of business intelligence reports. GBI Research covers worldwide markets and issues, supplies actionable data and forecasts and is driven by industry leaders’ insights. GBI Research provides a broad spectrum of reports across the healthcare and energy industries and its online offering is easy to navigate - a comprehensive resource for business information needs.