Sustainability of healthcare: Are medicine prices a risk for healthcare systems?

This Oxford style roundtable debate will respond to the motion “Medicine prices are not a risk for healthcare systems”.

Following a presentation by Jaime Espin, Professor at the Andalusian School of Public Health and lead author of the report on “Projecting Pharmaceutical Expenditure in EU5 to 2021: Adjusting for the Impact of Discounts and Rebates”, published in 2018, the motion will be supported by pro and con arguments substantiated by expertise opinion on the current state of healthcare in Europe.

The sustainability of healthcare systems across the European Union is under increasing pressure and scrutiny by taxpayers, and sources such as OECD data suggest that healthcare expenditure is rising with an expected growth rate of around 3% by 2030. While pharmaceutical innovations have the potential to improve patients’ life expectancy and quality of life, they also pose challenges to public health systems, including financial stability, post-market surveillance as well as patient access and affordability. However, publicly available data and related forecasts on pharmaceuticals do not paint a comprehensive picture of the situation: new analysis shows that pharmaceutical net expenditure is expected to grow at a sustainable rate of 1.5%. This suggests that the proportion of healthcare expenditure spent on medicines is actually decreasing.

• What would pharmaceutical forecasts look like if they were adjusted to  rebates and discounts on drug prices that national healthcare systems negotiate with the industry?
• How would such these discounts and rebates influence healthcare systems, the pharmaceutical industry and health technology assessment agencies?
• What can societies gain from investing in new pharmaceuticals?

Participants in the room will be encouraged to actively engage and decide where they stand on the role of pharmaceutical expenditure in the sustainability of healthcare systems across the EU.