Platform for access to new medicines: meeting of Working Group No. 1 on transparency

The WHO/Europe Platform for Access to New Medicines is organizing the second meeting of its Transparency Working Group in Brussels, Belgium on 5-6 December 2023.

The Platform established 4 working groups on the themes of transparency, solidarity, sustainability and antimicrobial resistance in order to define concrete actions with the aim of improving affordable and equitable access for patients to effective, new and high-cost medicines in the European Region.

In light of the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Work Program 2020-2025 and the framework set out in Resolution WHA72.8 of the 2019 World Health Assembly on improving the transparency of medicines markets, vaccines and other health products, Working Group No. 1 (WG1) aims to agree on multi-stakeholder actions to improve information transparency. This involves building trust, promoting collaboration, ensuring early warning and preparation for the introduction of new high-cost medicines into health care systems, and putting in place mechanisms making it possible to identify patients with access to these medicines.

Chaired by Francis Arickx, head of the Medicines Reimbursement and Pharmaceutical Policy Directorate within the Health Care Department of the Belgian National Institute for Sickness and Disability Insurance (INAMI), GT1 will review the problems encountered in a multi-stakeholder perspective to find solutions and define actions, including pilot/demonstration projects. The potential role of WHO/Europe in supporting these projects will be examined.

Participation in the working groups is through applications sent by the Platform’s registered speakers from Member States, non-state actors and other partners.