WHO Collaborating Centre for
Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmaceutical Policy Analysis holds its annual Winter Meeting in Utrecht on 10-11 January 2013. (Young) researcher are invited to submit abstracts for presentation.

Invitation and call for abstracts

Description about the out-patient and in-patient pharmaceutical sectors in the United Kingdom.

The next annual congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) will take place next year from 13-15 March 2013 in Paris. This congress’ theme is "Improving patient outcomes – a shared responsibility".

The article provides an overview about the existence and types of discounts and rebates granted to public payers by the pharmaceutical industry in European countries. Data were provided by public authorities for pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement represented in the PPRI (Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Information) network.

The article provides an overview about pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies which European countries apply to increase generics uptake.

Description about the out-patient and in-patient pharmaceutical sectors.

A three-day workshop and site visit on

Promoting Hospital-Primary Care Collaboration for Rational Use of Medicines – Workshop and Site Visit

Date: September 11–13, 2012
Place: Stockholm, Sweden

Organisers: Stockholm Health Care Region & Karolinska Institute

Flyer
Programme

Congratulations to Kees de Joncheere who was appointed as the new Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceuticals Policies (EMP) in WHO Headquarters in Geneva.

Kees de Joncheere was WHO Representative and Head of Country Office in Ukraine. Before, he was Regional Adviser Pharmaceuticals and Health technologies in WHO Europe.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies published a Spanish glossary of pharmaceutical terms with English translation of the key words.

The Spanish glossary was developed as part of our work on the development and promotion of a common understanding and language on pharmaceutical issues (see http://whocc.goeg.at/Topics/Terminology).

http://whocc.goeg.at/Publications/Methodology

The PPRI project was selected by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers, in collaboration with the Health Programme’s National Focal Points (NFP) and the Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) as a good practice example of a EU Public Health projects with an important impact for EU Member States.

See the brochure "EU Health Programme: working together to improve public health in Europe – A selection of Public Health Projects with an important impact for EU Member States".

The Austrian Health Institute published a study which analyzed the impact of pharmacy deregulation and regulation based on a survey in nine European countries. The countries investigated were countries with a deregulated community pharmacy sector (England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden) on the one hand and countries with a regulated community pharmacy sector (Austria, Denmark, Finland, and Spain) on the other hand.

The study concluded that expectations which were often connected to deregulation in the community pharmacy sector, in particular to improved accessibility and reduced medicines prices, could not be fully met. Liberalisation in the pharmacy sector can even have consequences, which might impede a good and equitable access to medicines, such as

• an uneven spread of community pharmacies within a country,
• the dominance of some market players, for example wholesalers and
• the economic pressure to increase the pharmacy turnover through the sale of OTC medicines and non-pharmaceuticals.

Detailed results are available in a 250 page full report which contains:

• nine country reports with facts and figures about the community pharmacy systems described according to a homogeneous outline,
• a comparative analysis in which fifteen indicators developed for assessing the impact of the community pharmacy system with regard to accessibility, quality and economics were benchmarked and discussed for the nine countries, and
• concluding chapters (lessons learned, with key observations per indicator and regarding key stakeholders, and conclusions).

Key outcomes and conclusions are provided in a concise 20 page summary report.