Drug Pricing Throughout the Product Lifecycle: A Work in Progress

Increases in drug prices and drug spending are of concern to health systems worldwide. This has naturally driven policy interest and discussion around drug pricing and the need to balance affordability with sustaining innovation. Some of these discussions are being shaped by the value-based systems already in use in some industrialized countries. There are also ongoing policy discussions about branded drug prices in the United States. There are several issues that are raised when discussing drug pricing and potential methods to ensure affordability and accessibility without providing disincentives to commercial development of innovative drugs, including the costs and uncertainty of drug development and the relationship of prices to drug value.