Ensuring fair prices for medicines
The high price of many essential medicines is a major barrier to the goal of universal health coverage and primary health care. The poor bear a disproportionate portion of this burden, and it is common in low- and middle-income countries for medicines to be the highest out-of-pocket expense after food.
WHO works with Member States and partners to promote programs and policies that make medicines affordable and accessible to all people.
To help collect data on medicine pricing, WHO developed an innovative multi-language tool to gather and analyze data on the price and availability of medicines in health facilities and procurement centers. The WHO Essential Medicines and Health Products Price and Availability Monitoring Mobile Application (WHO EMP MedMon) allows uses to monitor medicines’ prices and availability.
In conjunction with data collection, WHO convenes a series of Fair Pricing Forums to enable stakeholders to discuss options for a fairer pricing system for pharmaceuticals. Based on the findings of the 2019 forum in Johannesburg, a set of technical working groups will focus on specific areas of pricing to determine what is achievable in the short- and medium-term, reporting to the next Fair Pricing Forum in 2021.
