In my latest Guest Column in The Evidence Base, II am joined by my colleague Tiago Beck as we examine how global pricing reforms are reshaping the European pharmaceutical landscape.
Building on their session at ISPOR Europe 2025, the column explores the growing tension between EU access ambitions and international policy pressures – offering a timely perspective in light of last week’s agreement on the EU pharma package. An excerpt is below.
The European Union finds itself in an unprecedented policy paradox. It has just concluded negotiations on its landmark pharmaceutical reform – formally known as the EU General Pharmaceutical Legislation and commonly referred to as the ‘pharmaceutical package’ – in an effort to improve patient access and boost innovation through enhanced intellectual property incentives. The potential success of these efforts may, however, already be challenged by ongoing global developments. In particular, the US’ most-favored nation (MFN) pricing initiatives directly threaten the very access objectives that the reforms seek to achieve. Despite taking over two years to negotiate, the EU pharmaceutical package gave little consideration to the international pricing environment, and, as a result, the reforms risk becoming an exercise in elegant policy design divorced from practical market realities.
You can read the full column here.
