The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) has highlighted the urgent need to create systems in Europe that will ensure sustainable and equitable access for patients to the medicines they need. EAHP has therefore published a new position paper on the topic of medicines pricing, which was voted on and approved by its 34 member country associations.

The policy statement:

• urges health systems against shifting the burden of medicines cost directly towards the patient;

• calls for improved transparency in medicines pricing as necessary for effective scrutiny of public expenditure;

• supports efforts to achieve a greater match between a medicine's price and its value, and encourages the use of the hospital pharmacist's pharmacoeconomic expertise in this domain; and

• expresses the need for impact assessment in respect of generic tendering, which in some cases has been linked to the creation of supply chain vulnerability by consequent reduction in market providers.

Dr Roberto Frontini, President of the EAHP, …