Posted by Michael Wonder on 23 Nov 2018
Multi-indication pricing: nice in theory but can it work in practice?
24 November 2018 - For medicines with different valued indications, multi-indication pricing implies charging different prices for different uses.
In this article, the authors assess how multi-indication pricing could help achieve overall strategic objectives of pricing controls, summarise its advantages and disadvantages (vs. uniform pricing) and estimate the hypothetical impact on prices of moving towards multi-indication pricing for specific oncologic medicines in Spain.
International experience shows that multi-indication pricing can be implemented in real practice, and indeed a few initiatives are currently in use, albeit mostly applied indirectly through confidential pricing agreements that offer a way to discriminate prices across countries without altering list prices. However, some more sophisticated systems are in place in Italy, and more recently in Spain, where the objective is to monitor usage per patient/indication, and ultimately pay for outcomes.
