External reference pricing – Healthcare Economist

Why drug importation from Canada won’t work

2019-11-122019-11-12Jason Shafrin4 Comments

A number of politicians have called for the ability to import drugs from Canada and other developed countries. For instance, Bernie Sanders said: “I believe we should be able to import into the United States from Canada, and from other countries, FDA-approved medicine, which would substantially lower prices.” However, Canada does not want the U.S.…

How to do external reference pricing

2019-11-10Jason Shafrin1 Comment

Many European countries use external reference pricing (ERP) to help set their drug prices. External reference pricing caps the prices of drugs at some average or weighted average of the drug price in other countries. The comparison countries typically are either in close proximity or of similar GDP/capita level. The advantage of reference pricing is…