Tara Prasad moderates session at WHO’s Fair Pricing Forum

Affordability is a key component of access to medicine. The main objective of the Forum is to discuss options for a fairer pricing system, that is sustainable for both health systems and innovation. Tara is Company Engagement Manager & Lead Analytics at the Access to Medicine Foundation.

Tara will moderate a session on the transparency of R&D costs and drug prices. Participants in the session will discuss specific aspects of the current innovation and pricing system, including transparency of Research & Development costs and level of socially responsible prices and profit margins. They aim to identify harms and benefits of “hidden prices” and answer what a sustainable or “fair” price would look like.

The Forum is an initiative of the World Health Organization and is organized in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Health.

The stated objectives of the Forum are to:

• Facilitate discussion on strategies that could lead to a fairer price setting and a pricing system that is sustainable for health systems and for innovation.

• Hold preliminary discussions about the wanted but also unwanted consequences of the current business model including ideas about possible alternative business models.

• Explore approaches for high- and middle-income countries to remedy shortages of essential medicines that may be due to low profit margins.

• Expand current networks to include other relevant stakeholders and countries, to facilitate better exchange of experience.

• Identify research gaps, specific to the current innovation and pricing system, including the need for transparency of research and development (R&D) costs, production costs, and profit margins.