PHP34 Pricing Insights Across Therapy Areas and European Countries - A Discussion of International Price References and Implications for Parallel Trade and Prescription Patterns of Pharmaceutical Products

Abstract

This analysis compares pricing levels across 15 European countries and 10 therapy areas in 2010. The differences in the price levels are related to parallel imports and the innovativeness of prescriptions. From IMS PRICING INSIGHTS pricing information for pharmaceutical products is accessed at the pack level from 15 countries (EU5-Austria-Ireland-Sweden-Norway-Denmark-Portugal-Greece-Poland-Hungary-Romania) for 2010. Currency rates are fixed at 2010 levels. For the ten therapy areas, product baskets are constructed for the comparisons: The therapy areas are defined as Anatomic-Therapeutic-Chemical (ATC) classes at level 2. The top 100 products by sales in the EU5 in these classes enter the comparisons. Prices are compared at the manufacturer and the public sales levels. IMS MIDAS identifies imports related to the products in the baskets. The innovativeness of products is operationalized as the number of months between the overall first introduction and the introduction in the countries. The first result is that international drug price comparisons are extremely sensitive to methodological issues, e.g. sample selection, exchange rates. Differences in price build-up structures between countries would dominate cross-country price differences, if not accounted for. Differences between countries exist at the ex-manufacturer-level, differences between public sales levels tend to be larger. Price level differences between countries are not consistent across all analyzed therapy areas. Higher price levels are related to parallel trade rates across countries and to an earlier access to new pharmaceutical products. The analysis shows price differences across countries related to manufacture pricing and regulation structuring the price build-up and taxes. Higher price levels are linked to an earlier access to innovative products. Parallel trade flows into countries with higher price levels, usually from countries with lower price levels, causing scarcities. Differences in economic development and purchasing powers need to be analyzed to evaluate these differences in pricing levels.