Innovative pharmaceutical pricing agreements in five European markets: A survey of stakeholder attitudes and experience

Background: Innovative pricing agreements for medicines have been used in European markets for more than 20 years, and offer an opportunity for payers and pharmaceutical companies to align on value, optimise speed to patients, and share risk. Developing successful agreements requires alignment between key stakeholders, yet there is a lack of summative data on how current innovative agreements are used in the real-world (e.g. the level of realised access to medicines, and rebates and discounts, which are often non-transparent).

Methods: This research used a web-based survey of payer stakeholders to determine what kinds of innovative agreements are currently used, anticipated future usage, attitudes, and drivers of adoption. Participants included national and regional payers (or former payers) and hospital-level decision makers.

Results: Sixty-six payers completed the survey. Respondents expected that the use of innovative pricing agreements will remain the same or increase in the future. Overall, they felt there is a positive attitude towards new schemes, and that innovative agreements are likely to be used when they reduce total costs or reduce uncertainty.

Conclusions: Given payer expectations, pharmaceutical companies should continue to take a role in ensuring that they have sufficient capacity to support payers in the design and implementation of innovative pricing agreements.