The Price of Global Health : Drug Pricing Strategies to Balance Patient Access and the Funding of Innovation

is a unique book that describes the pharmaceutical pricing process and its business, economic and social challenges. Global drug pricing is one of the most hotly debated yet least understood aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. How should drug prices be set and what does it mean for patients? Why do governments increasingly get involved, and what is its impact on the global competitive environment? How can a life-saving industry have a poorer image than gun and tobacco industries, whose products are associated with death?

The pharmaceutical industry is under unprecedented pressure due to a combination of declining R&D productivity, payer/provider demands for better value and public pressures to show pricing restraint. Rapidly increasing cost of healthcare, shifts from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement, public pressure on drug pricing and an increasingly vocal medical community have empowered public and private payers worldwide to be more demanding on evidence of value for the prescription drugs that are brought to market. Pharmaceutical companies have often failed to deliver evidence of patient value, as development decision-making is overly focused on speed to FDA approval rather than speed to commercial success by effectively addressing the many “Access Journey” obstacles that typify today’s much changed pharmaceutical environment.

This 3rd edition is significantly expanded with ten new chapters and revised and updated throughout to reflect today’s environment. The contents are reorganized to directly address critical pricing and patient access issues. Ed Schoonveld explains how pharmaceutical prices are determined in a complex global payer environment and what factors influence the process. His insights will help a wide range of audiences from healthcare industry professionals to policy makers, consumers, pharmaceutical company leaders and access and pricing professionals to gain a better understanding of this highly complex and emotionally charged field.