Fearne calls for Europe-wide price transparency for pharmaceuticals

Health Minister Chris Fearne has insisted Europe should strive to ensure there is price transparency when dealing with pharmaceuticals to ensure every country gets "a fair deal".

Speaking as one of the panelists during a webinar by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Fearne argued that in today's world, transparency and accountability of those in power are crucial and this should therefore also apply to the pharmaceutical industry. 

Instead of blindly negotiating, Fearne said, countries should be able to do so knowing what price others are paying. This, he said, is also the first step towards successful joint procurement - the process of countries coming together and combining procurement efforts to ensure fairer contracts for all.

"Price transparency and the process of setting prices are crucial. We found we could not negotiate unless we knew each other's prices.  

"It works. We've done this with the COVID-19 vaccine. I am absolutely sure that had we negotiated alone, as a small country in 2020 when the vaccines were more desirable than gold, we would not have got the prices we got, and we would not have had the same accessibility," Fearne said.

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