27 May 2021 - External reference pricing, sometimes known as international reference pricing, refers to the practice of informing price negotiations in a given country by calculating a benchmark, or reference, price based on publicly available pricing data from one or more other countries.

The rationale for external reference pricing is straightforward — to ensure that the maximum price paid for a drug is not excessive relative to its price in countries that are comparable in terms of economic indicators, structure of the health system, and other factors.

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