WHO/Europe is working with countries across the European Region to develop a new multistakeholder platform to improve access to novel, high-cost medicines in the Region.
The new Access to Novel Medicines Platform (NMP) builds on the work started by the Oslo Medicines Initiative (OMI) in 2020. WHO/Europe is establishing a formal collaboration mechanism to promote dialogue and knowledge exchange between Member States, non-state actors, partners and other stakeholders. The strategic aims of the NMP are:
- agree on actions to improve the transparency of the markets to build trust, promote collaboration, enable horizon scanning, facilitate accountability and allow corrective actions to be implemented;
- support solidarity-based voluntary collaborations that focus on patient access, including horizon scanning, demand aggregation and life-cycle management;
- develop methodology, indicators and systems that recognize the need for sustainability of health-care systems and industry, and enable risk sharing and good governance of the market.
Major steps in biopharmaceutical research and advances in prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment have been made in recent decades, thanks to investment from the public and private sectors. However, countries in the Region have voiced concern over the escalating prices of new medicines, which have restricted patient access, increased inequities and, in some cases, resulted in financial hardship.
The market for these specialized medicines is likely to expand significantly over the next decade. Although this will offer new opportunities for patients, it will also challenge health systems already under significant pressure because of the current economic strains and socioeconomic recovery from COVID-19. That is why WHO/Europe is calling for urgent collective action to ensure equitable access for all patients in need and safeguard the sustainability of health systems.
Access to Novel Medicines Platform
The OMI and other public and private initiatives developed in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that the key to progress is working together. The OMI identified the urgent need to define the roles and social and ethical responsibilities of the public and private sectors more clearly through multistakeholder dialogue.
At the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC72) in Tel Aviv, Israel, in September 2022, Member States gave WHO/Europe the mandate to continue to act as a neutral convenor, host and facilitator by creating a formal stakeholder collaboration platform – the NMP – to improve affordable and equitable access to effective, novel, high-priced medicines in the Region.
“At our Regional Committee session in September last year, 19 countries took the floor to outline the health systems challenges they faced in providing access to medicines – not only for novel high-cost products but also for essential medicines. The Access to Novel Medicines Platform – the first of its kind – will be a safe space in which Member States can discuss these issues and identify solutions,” said Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO/Europe.
WHO/Europe is convening consultations with representatives from Member States, non-state actors and other regional partner organizations to inform the development of the platform and its work packages.
The proposals and terms of reference will be considered by the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee and shared at the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in Astana, Kazakhstan, in October 2023.