The EURIPID collaboration held its annual meeting of the Board of Participants (BoP) in Brussels on 4-5^th June 2024. A total of representatives of 19 BoP members gathered at the Belgian Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV INAMI).

At the BoP meeting, besides the update on current matters of EURIPID and the presentation of analysis that can be done with EURIPID data, the focus of the meeting was to define how EURIPID can be further improved, compromising data utilisation for internal use and data access for external users.

The BoP meeting was followed by the EURIPID ACCESS project meeting on the 6^th June. At that meeting, project partners mainly discussed current and upcoming tasks and associated challenges.

On 25 and 26 April 2024 the 5th PPRI Conference of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies was held at the Palais Niederösterreich in Vienna. More than 250 participants from more than 40 countries discussed about burning challenges related to equitable and affordable access to medicines worldwide (https://ppri.goeg.at/news1). On the second day of the conference, the EURIPID Collaboration organised a workshop about „How the Euripid collaboration contributes to improving access to biosimilars“. The workshop was moderated by Claudia Habl who serves as Secretary of the Board of Participants (BoP) of the EURIPID collaboration. In her welcoming address she set the framework on Biosimilars, policies to encourage their uptake and remaining challenges regarding access to biosimilar medicines.

The first keynote was given by Gergely Németh from the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund (NEAK) and project manager of EURIPID, who introduced the EURIPID collaboration to the participants of the workshop. He emphasised the data content of the EURIPID database and the possibility for researchers to apply for data extracts. Mr. Németh concluded his presentation with an outlook on the expected outcome of current activities like the EC grant „EURIPID access“ or involvement in the WHO-EURO Access to Novel Medicines Platform.

In the second keynote, Matjaž Marc from Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices of the Slovenian Republic (JAZMP) talked about the „Impact of market entries of biosimilars in Slovenia“, a policy brief produced under the current EC grant. The analysis aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of information in the EURIPID database and which research questions could be answered with this data. The results pointed that in European countries considerable difference in the minimum wholesale unit price of the original (i.e. reference product) and biosimilar medicines remains. Compared to other European countries, the number products containing adalimumab available on the Slovenian market is comparably high. Furthermore, The overall annual expenditure on adalimumab-containing biologicals has been reduced since biosimilars‘ market entry at the end of 2018 due to reduction of the price of the original product and increased utilisation of cheaper biosimilars.

The last part of the workshop contained a high-quality panel discussion in which following experts additionally joined the podium: Liese Barbier (KU Leuven / European Medicines Agency), Dorthe Bartels (AMGROS), Francis Arickx (RIZIV-INAMI) and Frode Hellesnes (Biogen). After a brief introduction of themselves, all six speakers (key note speakers and panelists) discussed about several topics regarding biosimilar. If currenty regulatory approval procedures are deemed sufficient and if panelists would need more support by regulators. Measures to encourage the uptake of biosimilars and open points regarding prescribing requirements or compulsory substitution. The takeaway messages of the panelists were:

• To capture the benefits of biosimilar competition for patients and healthcare systems, not only today but also over future years, we need holistic policy measures, focus on stimulating sustainable competition over the longer term, and collective action across stakeholders
• Important to work close together and use the local/nationale system (competition and tender) to make the best set-up for launch biosimilar in the market. Quick uptake of biosimilar means great savings for payers, while at the same time more patients are in treatment
• Biosimilars are not necessarily Best Value Biologicals
• The biosimilar void and product supply has become a major future challenge. We are at a crossroad, if we want to take advantage of the opportunities future biosimilars represents we need to improve the market framework in many countries. History demonstrate that free competitions (e.g. tenders & contracts developed in close cooperation between buyer and sellers) works and strict regulations do not.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Pricing and Reimbursement Policies, located at Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG/Austrian National Public Health Institute) in Vienna organise this year 5th PPRI Conference. From Thursday, 25 April till Friday 26 April Health experts will discuss at the Palais Niederösterreich in Vienna about „Ensuring access to affordable medicines through innovative policies“. The EURIPID Collaboration has been invited to organise a conference workshop on Friday, and we are very pleased to anounce that we have developed a very interesting session titled „How the Euripid collaboration contributes to improving access to biosimilars“.

Biosimilars have an efficacy and safety so similar that they are considered interchangeable with their reference medicines. They hold the potential to contribute to the financial sustainability of health care systems and improve access to medicines for patients. Despite their advantages, barriers remain and to a certain extent impede their successful entry into the market or uptake by health systems. During the workshop experts will explore reasons for those barriers and dicuss potential solutions.

Here is the programme for the EURIPID Conference workshop on Friday, 26 April 2024, 13.30 – 15.00

• Welcoming by the Chair of the Session Claudia Habl, Austrian National Public Health Institute, Secratary of the Board of Participants (BoP) of EURIPID
• Introduction of EURIPID and current EC Grant by Gergely Németh (Semmelweis University, Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund, project manger of EURIPID)
• Keynote: „Impact of market entries of biosimilars in Slovenia“ by Matjaž Marc, Agency for Medicinal Products and Medical Devices of the Slovenian Republic (JAZMP, tbc)
• Plenary Discussion on „Biosimilars – Monitoring & policies in the product life cycle management“ moderated by the chair of the session; Speakers at the panel are (in alphabetical order)
  • Francis ARICKX, National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV-INAMI)
  • Liese BARBIER, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, European Mediciens Agency (EMA)
  • Dorthe BARTHELS, AMGROS
  • Magnus BODIN, Medicines for Europe
• Open questions to panelists from the audiences
• Wrap-up by the chair of the session

The EURIPID collaboration hopes to welcome many interested participants at the workshop.

 

On 19 October 2023 the EURIPID collaboration held its annual Meeting of the Board of Participants (BoP). EURIPID members from 20 countries gathered at the premises of the Polish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System (Agencja Oceny Technologii Medycznych i Taryfikacji, AOTMiT) in Warsaw. The meeting was facilitated by Momir Radulović, the Director of the Slovenian Medicines Agency (JAZMP) who is currently the elected chair of the EURIPID’s BoP. The welcoming speaches by Maciej Miłkowski (Deputy Minister at the Polish Ministry of Health), Roman Topór-Mądry (President of AOTMiT) and Laure Geslin (European Commission) emphasised that EURIPID is a very successful project and within the European Union (EU) a best practice example of a member-state driven initiative. Furthermore, the speakers highleted EURIPID’s contribution to ensure that patients have access to affordable medicines and that health systems remain financially sustainable. During the meeting participants were informed by the project manager Gergely Néméth about the current state of play of the EURIPID collaboration.

This year, Croatia and Malta joined the EURIPID collaboration, raising the number of participating countries to 28. Furthermore, the BoP has also approved the participation of Romania.

A major part of discussions at this year’s BoP meeting was reserved for the future of EURIPID. When EURIPID started more than 10 years ago national competent authorities on pricing and reimbursement of pharmaceuticals faced different challenges than today. Therefore, EURIPID members initiated at the last BoP meeting 2022 in Oslo a process of getting EURIPID ready for the future and its challenges. An important part of this development will be covered by the current EC grant EURIPID ACCESS which aims to analyse options and to develop early warning mechanisms in the EURIPID website and database to detect excessive pricing. The major guiding principle for EURIPID’s further development will be to turn information into knowledge and how public institutions in the field of pricing and reimbursement of medicines can benefit from it.

 

EURIPID is proud to announce Croatias re-entry into EURIPID. After careful negotations and fullfilling the necessary reqirements, Croatia has once again become a full-member of EURPID. Joining EURIPID brings numerous benefits. EURIPID supports countries by sharing pricing information on a wide range of pharmaceuticals. It helps policymakers to make informed decisions, monitor price developments and assess market competitivness.