As the global debate intensifies over whether multi-million-dollar drugs are worth the money, big pharma needs to improve transparency over the pricing and therapeutic value of potentially life-saving new medicines, says law and medicine expert Kerstin Noëlle Vokinger. SWI swissinfo.ch: It seems no one is happy with drug prices. Pharma companies argue efforts to rein in prices will thwart innovation, while patients and health authorities are trying to deal with more drugs at higher prices. What’s at the heart of the problem? Kerstin Noëlle Vokinger (K.V.): First, this is not a new problem. We have been debating what is a fair price for a long time, but the problem has just accelerated and gotten worse. One issue is we have more drugs with high prices. Yearly treatment costs can be more than $150,000 for some drugs and then we have gene therapies that cost over $2 million. This is a new dimension. The other issue is that the evidence on the efficacy of many drugs has decreased at ...
