E-drug: WHO Conference on Policies on Pricing etc (cont)
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Dear e-druggers,
on November 16-17 WHO European Regional Office is organising a
meeting with the Ministries of Health and Social Health Insurance
Institutions, for the officials responsible for pharmaceutical
reimbursement and pricing policies.
This meeting is a follow-up of a 1999 WHO/EURO explorative meeting
with Ministries of Health and social health insurance authorities
from Member States to discuss the emerging use of pharmaco-economics
in the decision-making procedures in the reimbursement systems. The
meeting concluded on the usefulness of applying pharmaco- and health
economic guidance as one of the criteria in the reimbursement
decisions, but also recognized the considerable methodological
difficulties in developing the guidelines and interpreting the
results of the studies. Possible areas for further work include :
experiences with pharmaco-economic guidelines and guidance;
reimbursement criteria; information exchange on drug prices;
reimbursement status and additional conditions; rational use of medicines ;
and policies on generic drugs.
In response to this the WHO/EURO is convening this meeting that will
provide a forum for high level pharmaceutical policy makers from
Ministries of Health and social health insurance from European member
countries to discuss these pharmaceutical policy issues and
challenges, to analyse the potential areas for further information
exchange and international collaboration, and to develop more
concrete proposals in that respect.
The report of the meeting will posted on the internet, and I will
alert you in due time.
You also may wish to look at the report of the EU conference on
"Medicines and Public Health" at http://www.infarmed.pt/home.html
best wishes
Kees de Joncheere
Regional Adviser for Pharmaceuticals
WHO/EURO
8 Scherfigsvej, 2100 Copenhagen, DK
tel 45-39171528/39171432
fax 45-39171855
email cjo@who.dk
http://www.who.dk/ch/pha
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