Towards an agreement for improving access to high-cost medicines
WHO
Convening an expert meeting to explore ways to improve access to expensive medicines which are important for improving people’s health was the focus of the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge’s visit to Brussels earlier this week. The meeting, convened by WHO/Europe, was hosted by the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV).
Speaking at the meeting, Dr Kluge emphasized the need to “strive to ensure that the solutions we work for will be solutions that can benefit all European Region countries, and to strengthen the ways in which countries work together to tackle barriers to accessing innovative and high-priced medicines”.
This comes ahead of a high-level meeting to be held in Oslo from 15–16 June and hosted by the Ministry for Health of Norway.
The meeting will bring together countries participating in the voluntary networks that have developed in recent years to exchange information on best practices and make steps towards implementing the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution “Improving the transparency of markets for medicines, vaccines, and other health products”.
The development of an agreement between health authorities, funders, patients, professionals and industry will be discussed during this high-level meeting, which will provide an opportunity to engage key stakeholders in finding concrete solutions that will ultimately make a difference in improving universal health coverage.
This week’s meeting came following a discussion between WHO/Europe and Norway in January this year, where Mr Bent Høie, Minister of Health and Care Services of Norway, called on WHO/Europe to take a lead convening role on future collaboration.
Dr Kluge recognized the importance of the issue, including bringing together for dialogue existing subregional networks and partners, including patient groups, industry representatives and professional organizations.
