In Bad Gastein, the 20th European Healthcare Forum is taking place, which has become a platform for the exchange of knowledge at the international level and the discussion of the main healthcare issues. The event has attracted over 600 participants from all over the world.
Austria has been consistently among the Top-10 countries with the best medicine for many years. In the 70s, the Federal Program of Medical Prevention was implemented, which has determined the latest trends in Austrian medicine. One of its fundamental principles is «Against the death until the deadline» — is successfully implementing, not only by increasing the life expectancy, but also by a progressive increase of the population that is nowadays rare enough for highly developed countries.
Within the framework of the Forum, the General Director of the ARPM, Viktor Dmitriev took part in the session «Prices simulation for medicines». The moderator was Kevin Lotkh, a Vice President for Corporate Affairs and Policies of the Biopharmaceutical Company «Celgene». The discussion focused on price setting mechanisms, biopharmaceutical business models, and on the role of innovative medicines in healthcare systems in different countries. Using a simulation exercise session, each participant had the opportunity to take the place of a General Director of a pharmaceutical company and experience the complexity and compromises faced by all stakeholders while evaluating the innovative medicines. During the simulations the participants of the discussion were asked to determine the amount for medicines of three different groups. The result, which showed the list of factors of pricing, interested the audience.
Speaking about the plans and methods aimed at increasing the competition at the pharmaceutical market, led an absolutely new example: Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the eve announced the measures to simplify the development and approval of coformulated generic medicines. The relevant project is aimed at dosing inhalers for the treatment of asthma and some injectable medicines. Such steps to encourage the development of generic rivals to original coformulated medicines will have a huge impact on medicines prices and access to treatment.
Between the sessions, the General Director of the Association of the Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, Viktor Dmitriev held meetings with the representative of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) Nathalie Moll, a General Secretary of the European Forum of Patients (EPF) Nicola Bedlington, as well as vice-president of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova Oksana Domenti. Experts have discussed the current issues of medicines provision, mechanisms for prices setting for medicines, launches of innovative medicines at the markets of different countries. «The issue of pricing for innovative medicines today is actual for all healthcare systems. Russia is not an exception. Speaking with the colleagues from the European Union has confirmed the validity of the possibility of negotiations between business and government. In this dialogue, a balance of interests and mutual responsibility for decisions are extremely important. Sometimes dumping a certain company for here-and-now profit or financial gain can disbalance the whole system of procurement and pricing. Such cases should be stopped in the harshest possible way, especially in the Russian coordinate system. And the business community, together with government structures, should get rid of such «miserable partners», — Victor Dmitriev has mentioned.
One of the global problems of European healthcare is the growing level of public distrust regarding the immunization. Vaccination programs, when faced with a new set of problems, require improvement of the targeted intervention strategy. Why parents and healthcare professionals are increasingly hesitant to do the vaccination discussed at the session about vaccine prevention. The moderator of the event was the Director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Andrea Ammon. Participants of the discussion shared the experiences of different countries and identified possible solutions.
The European Healthcare Forum was established in 1998 as a platform for discussing healthcare problems. Since then, the forum has turned into a key annual event that brings together politicians, representatives of the pharmaceutical business, scientists, medicine and pharmacy specialists from all over the world. In 2001, the «Concept of the Gastein Meetings» went through, in which the concept of «health» was defined as a state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease and old age.