WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies

Overview

About this guideline

In recent years, high prices of pharmaceutical products have posed challenges in high- and low-income countries alike. In many instances, high prices of pharmaceutical products have led to significant financial hardship for individuals and negatively impacted on healthcare systems’ ability to provide population-wide access to essential medicines.

Pharmaceutical pricing policies need to be carefully planned, carried out, and regularly checked and revised according to changing conditions. Strong, well-thought-out policies can guide well-informed and balanced decisions to achieve affordable access to essential health products.

This guideline replaces the 2015 WHO guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies, revised to reflect the growing body of literature since the last evidence review in 2010. This update also recognizes country experiences in managing the prices of pharmaceutical products.

• Web Annex A: Systematic reviews for the update of the WHO Guideline on country pharmaceutical pricing policies. Tordrup D, van den Ham R, Leopold C, Joosse I, Glanville J, Kotas E, Mantel-Teeuwisse A.
  Utrecht: Utrecht University, 2020.
• Web Annex B: Evidence-to-Decision tables.

Procedures for updating this Guideline

This guideline has been updated in accordance to the methods and procedures outlined in WHO Handbook for Guideline Development. The following contributors were involved in the planning, development and publication of this guideline: 

• Guideline development group comprising external independent experts
• Systematic review team from the Utrecht Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation at Utrecht University, in collaboration with York Health Economics Consortium at the University of York
• WHO Steering Group comprising personnel from the technical unit and members from WHO departments and regional offices whose work deals directly with the topic of the guideline.
• External reviewers

This work is supported by funding from the UK Government Department for International Development.